LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



i G 2 r 

Shelf. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.^ 



A HISTORY 

OF 

THE KANSAS CRUSADE 

ITS FRIENDS AND ITS FOES 



By ELI THAYER 

O rX INTRODUCTION BY 

REV. EDWARD EVERETT HALE, D.D. 



SEP . 



NEW YORK 
HARPER & BROTHERS, "FRANKLIN SQUARE 

1889 



<"3 



Copyright, 1889, by Harper & Brothers. 
All rights reserved. 



f 

3 



DeDtcateD 



CHARLES ROBINSON 

THE LEADER OF THE FREE STATE PARTY IN THE KANSAS 

TERRITORIAL CONFLICT, AND THE EFFICIENT 

WAR-GOVERNOR OF THE STATE 

ALSO 

TO ALL MY OTHER COMRADES AND HELPERS IN THE 

GREAT CRUSADE WHO STILL SURVIVE, AND 

TO THE HONORED MEMORY OF THOSE 

WHO HAVE DEPARTED 

ELI THAYER 



PHEFACE. 

The purpose of this book is to show by what 
agency Kansas was made a free State, and how 
this result has affected our national life. 

This triumph of the ;N"orth was regarded by 
slave-holders as ample proof that there could never 
be another slave State in the Union. Hence came 
the attempt to secede, the Civil War, and the 
Emancipation Proclamation as "a mihtary neces- 
sity." Hence came also an enduring national uni- 
ty having no conflicting sectional interests. 

The great Kansas struggle was therefore the 
pivot on which this nation turned to a nobler de- 
velopment and to a higher and happier condition 
of all its people. The consequences of this triumph 
of freedom are becoming more and more apparent 
with each succeeding year. 

A period longer than is allowed for one genera- 
tion of men has .passed since this contest began — 
more than a quarter of a century has gone since it 
vfas ended. It may therefore be demanded why 
there has been so long delay in making public rec- 
ord of the methods which have brought us such 
beneficent results. 

The Civil War engrossed the attention of all the 
people for nearly five years. Since the war the 



vi PREFACE. 

various actors in it have been constantly putting 
their own achievements in writing for the pubHc 
use. The present, therefore, is the first time when 
the great cause of the wonderful political changes 
of the last thirty years, and the powerful agency 
which has brought us to our present high position, 
could be wisely presented for public consideration. 

There has never been any danger that false con- 
clusions about either the agency or its methods 
could secure a permanent place in history. The 
contemporaneous records of this great work are in 
every city and State of the Union. They abound 
in all the Congressional records of the time, in the 
messages of Presidents, in the reports of committees 
of Congress, in many histories, and in the files of 
innumerable newspapers, magazines, and periodicals 
of various kinds. So, whatever ephemeral indorse- 
ment any false claims might be able to secure the 
careful study of future historians would be certain 
to expose, while it would establish, vindicate, and 
fortify the truth. Justice, though slow, would in 
this case be sure. 

The records of geology, written upon the rocks 
hidden deep in the earth, have established, as facts 
disputed by none, the early history of men, of ani- 
mals, and of vegetation to have been entirely dif- 
ferent from the ideas prevalent a few centuries ago. 

So this present writing might be still further 
postponed, or even abandoned, without any danger 
of the truths herein presented being lost in perpet- 
ual oblivion. It will, however, save labor to the 
historian of the future, and much perplexity to the 



PREFACE. vii 

present generation, to have at hand such a summary 
of facts as is here recorded. Another great advan- 
tage of deferring this work no longer is the fact 
that thousands of men are now hving who were 
earnest, interested, and intelligent spectators of 
these events, or determined and heroic actors in 
them, who will cheerfully bear witness to the truth 
of these statements and to the logical conclusions 
derived from them. 

This is intended to be only a summary of the 
events preceding the Civil War. Materials are at 
hand sufficient to fill several volumes ; but a work 
so extensive would seldom reach the ordinary 
reader. It has been deemed best, therefore, by 
careful selection and condensation, to put the main 
features of this history within the compass of a 
single volume. Within this narrow limit it will 
not be possible to describe the conflict within the 
Territory of Kansas, but only the agency and the 
methods employed outside of her boundaries, by 
which the people of the Northern States were 
aroused and united so as effectually to co-operate 
in furnishing the men and the means to secure the 
triumph there of the free-State cause. 

Prof. L. W. Spring, in his " Kansas," has given 
a very full and reliable history of the Territorial 
struggle, culminating in the establishment of a free 
State unsurpassed in moral, intellectual, and mate- 
rial prosperity. Such success was well earned by 
the heroic, self-sacrificing pioneers who put before 
the advancing and encroaching power of slavery 
the impassable barrier of themselves and of the 



viii PREFACE. 

trophies of free labor by which they were sur- 
rounded. Thus have they proved to the world the 
strength of freedom and the imbecility of slavery. 

In giving a truthful account of the Kansas cru- 
sade, it was necessary to speak plainly of our allies 
and also of our enemies. How could a truthful 
history of the Eevolutionary War be written unless 
the writer should describe the obstacles which our 
patriots overcame in securing independence? It 
would not be enough to write only of the British 
and the Continentals. The Tories, our enemies, 
and the French, our aUies, should have prominent 
places. So in this history Garrison and his follow- 
ers are properly put among the enemies of the 
Kansas crusade, while the clergy, the churches, and 
the Press of the North are, for abundant reasons, 
recorded as our friends and helpers. 

But the Tories of Eevolutionary times were very 
modest people compared with the disunionists who 
opposed the Kansas crusade. Of the former, some 
left the country and others repented and remained. 
None of them had the impudence to claim that 
they secured the independence of the colonies. 
Had they done so, the rage of the Continentals 
w^ould have extinguished them and their claims to- 
gether. 

But these disunionists and their friends, during 
the last quarter of a century, have been parading 
claims quite as baseless and absurd. 

It is time that such nonsense came to an end. 
It is time that such impudent falsifying of history 
should be rebuked. But for these false claims, so 



PREFACE. ix 

persistently and defiantly presented that many of 
the present generation believe them true, the writer 
would have devoted no time or attention to these 
fanatics. They were too feeble to harm our cause, 
and their efforts to do so were pitiful indeed. Had 
they been a thousand times as powerful as they 
were, they could not have hindered our organized 
army of freemen who ended the curse of slavery. 

But the time has now come when their grotesque 
dishonesty in opposing the Kansas crusade, and 
then in claiming as their own work the grand re- 
sults achieved by its heroes, should not longer be 
endured in silence. 

Eli Thayer. 
Worcester, Mass., 1889. 
1* 



intiiodtjctio:n^. 



Mk. Thayer has been good enough to permit me 
to contribute a few words to this vohmie, which 
will be printed, I beheve, as an introduction. We 
are two old soldiers in this emigration cause, and 
it is a real pleasure to me to speak of him who 
planned the whole movement with such distinct 
knowledge of what was needed, and carried out 
his plans with such promptness and success. I am 
more proud of my part in the settlement of Kan- 
sas, though it was only that of a subordinate, than 
I am of any public service I have ever rendered. 
I can well suppose that he is proud of his as the 
successful leader. And I should be sorry not to 
say, on all occasions, that to him the work owed its 
success, and the nation owes all that grew from 
that success. 

As early as 1845 I had looked to emigration 
from the JSTorth as the solution of the slavery prob- 
lems. I heard from the galleries of House and 
Senate in Washington the debates on the Joint 
Eesolution which annexed Texas. I was in Wash- 
ington that winter, and in its social circles, let me 
say, I was in a position to suspect something of 
the infamous corruption by which the passage of 
that resolution was bouo:ht. I returned to New 



xii INTRODUCTION. 

England, which was my home, in March, 18-i5, and 
at once wrote and published a pamphlet called 
" How to Conquer Texas before Texas Conquers 
Us." It proposed a Northern emigration to Tex- 
as, which I was ready to join. I hoped it would 
quicken attention, that settlers would offer them- 
selves, and that we should make the Mayflower 
company for the redemption of that region. In 
this hope I was wholly disappointed. I paid for 
the printing of my pamphlet, and I own the edi- 
tion now. I have never heard that one copy was 
bought by any one, far less that one was read. 

The truth was that I did not know how to or- 
ganize emigration, and probably also that "the 
time was not yet come." 

But in the spring of 1854 the hour had come — 
and the man. That man was Eli Thaj^er, who was, 
fortunately, in the Legislature of Massachusetts; 
well known as a pronounced and eloquent Free- 
soiler. The young men of the country — I can speak 
for one of them — were wholly sick of talk; they 
hated " resolutions," and they wanted to 'do some- 
thing. Eli Thayer showed what was to be done, 
and arranged the way. 

It is very curious that the method of organizing 
emigration which he invented had never been hit 
upon before. It is the only method yet tried 
which secures entire freedom to the emigrant, and 
gives at the same time the use of capital contrib- 
uted by people who do not emigrate, and the ad- 
vantages of a central, intelligent supervision. The 
settler must be left free. It was not meant to tie 



INTRODUCTION. xiii 

his hands in a wilderness. It was not meant to 
sacrifice comfort and to risk life for the purpose of 
earning money for people who stay at home. On 
the other hand, there must be capital, if the colony 
is not to be fatally handicapped, from the begin- 
ning. And every colony which is started without 
central and intelligent supervision shows in its 
after -development the unfortunate consequences. 
Such consequences may be seen in the history of 
the development of most of our Western States. 

Under Mr. Thayer's plan the emigrant paid his 
own fare, but he paid it Avith the advantages the 
company had gained for him in making the low- 
est contracts possible among competing lines. He 
went where he chose. But if he chose he could go 
in a party of people of like habits and opinions, 
led by a competent leader who knew the route. 
He settled where he pleased. But if he pleased he 
might take from the Government of the United 
States his quarter section by the side of those 
taken by his companions, and in the neighborhood 
of the mills built by the company's capital. 

J^ow, in that enterprise the essential thing, as 
was proved at once, was the mutual support which 
the I^orthern settlers gave each other. The annals 
of Kansas are full of stories of the cruel deaths of 
settlers who trusted themselves alone to the sepa- 
rate squatter loneliness of the old Western ways. 
This time there were enemies more terrible than 
Shawnees or Pavrnees. And who shall say how 
many horrors of arson and murder in the wilder- 
ness are not written in anv annals ? 



xiv INTRODUCTION. 

On the other hand, the people in Mr. Thayer's 
colonies, in all their hardships, hung by each 
other. We used to head our placards " Saw-mills 
and Liberty " when we called a public meeting in 
New England. And the very names of " Lawrence," 
" Topeka," and other towns founded by the Kew 
England Emigrant Aid Company under Mr. Thay- 
er's plans, stand out as central names in any ade- 
quate history of that time. 

I was chosen as one of the younger directors of 
the company, and was afterwards its vice-presi- 
dent, and had an opportunity, therefore, to see the 
unflinching spirit with which Mr. Thayer carried 
out his plans, and the untiring activity with which 
he drove them through. What has happened in 
thirty-four years since is this : Under his plans 
four or five thousand of the most resolute men and 
women whom the world ever saw together went 
into Kansas. Five or ten times that number went 
also, encouraged by this example, and confident 
in their success. This emigration at that time 
would have been impossible but for Eli Thayer. 
The first result was civil war in Kansas. The sec- 
ond was the success of the free-State settlers. The 
third was the election of Abraham Lincoln. A 
minor result was that the infant State of Kansas, 
only admitted into the Uuion by Lincoln's first Con- 
gress, furnished more fighting men, in proportion 
to her population, to the Union army than any 
other State. As for the change — absolute and 
sweeping — from Southern domination over Amer- 
ica to the Northern successes which took the 



INTRODUCTION. xv 

y^lm of the country after 1861, it is needless to 
p speak. 

/ N'ow that it is all over, it is convenient for every 
/ public man to remember the share he has taken in 
/ this work, and to congratulate himself and the coun- 
try on this share. That is natural enough, and fair. 
It is natural also to say, "All this must have come. 
It is the regular flow of history. The moment had 
come for action and reaction, and so forth, and 
so forth." All this is true. But it is equally true 
that when the reservoir of Northern indignation was 
still a reservoir, with its rage wasted on its banks, 
one man saw where the spade-blows were to be 
struck through which the waters should rush out. 
He knew how to strike these blows — struck them 
with his own hands — and made the channel through 
which the waters flowed ; and that man was Eli 
Thayer. 

When people say "Quite of course — it must 
come," I wish they would remember that even the 
judiciary committee which gave him the charter he 
asked in a Free-soil Legislature thought the whole 
thing was nonsense. I wish they would remember 
that he had to " hire a hall," to use our fine Amer- 
ican proverb, in the city of Boston, and to pay for 
it with his own money, before the people of Boston 
or of any place could be taught that here was a 
practical scheme in which they could spend their 
energies. 

After he had shown the way, there were enough 
brave men who joined him. Not at first in crowds ; 
but such men count each for a great deal, and 



xvi INTRODUCTION. 

there were enough. Such men as Amos A. Law- 
rence, J. M. S. Williams, Martin Brimmer, Samuel 
Cabot, John Carter Brown, George L. Stearns — who 
give themselves when they give their money — push 
an enterprise steadily, and if it ought to succeed it 
does succeed. The simplicity, the directness, the 
truth and audacity of Mr. Thayer enlisted such 
men. But, for one such man who was enlisted, a 
hundred as rich as they, and as strong in a way, 
if it had been the right way, refused. They had 
the chance and they did not take it. It is al- 
ways so. " Many are called," and only a handful 
choose themselves to the forlorn -hope — or ''are 
chosen." 

ISTow that it is all over, the men who fell into 
line in 1856 and 1859 and 1861 think they fell in 
in 1854. It is not of much importance to them or 
to anybody. But for the truth of history it is im- 
portant to remember that Eli Thayer first saw how 
to work, that he first showed it to America, and 
that he led the way. 

I resist the temptation to make extracts from 
an immense correspondence of those early years, 
which would show who did believe, and who did 
not believe, in Mr. Thayer's enterprise. But the 
following letters, of a more recent date, are so in- 
teresting and instructive that I like to include them 
in this introductory paper. 

Theodore Parker, January 29, 1858, in the Ilall 
of the State-house, spoke as follows : 

"Not to mention others from New England or elsewhere, 
here is a speech from Hon. Eli Thayer, ironical sometimes, I take 



INTRODUCTION. xvii 

it, but plain and direct in substance. He would have the free 
States send settlers to Northernize tlie South — already he has a 
colony in Virginia — and New Englandize Central America. 
'The Yankee,' says Mr. Tha3'er, 'has never become a slave- 
holder unless he has been forced to it b}^ the social relations of 
the slave State where he lived ; and the Yankee who has become 
a slave-holder has every day of his life thereafter felt in his very 
bones the bad economy of the system. Why, sir, we can buy a 
negro power in a steam-engine for ten dollars, and we can feed 
and clothe that power for one year for five dollars; are we the 
men to give $1000 for an African slave, and $150 a year to feed 
and clothe him V This is an antislavery argument which trad- 
ers can understand. Mr. Thayer is not so much of a talker as 
an organizer ; he puts his thoughts into works. You know 
how much Kansas owes him for the organization he has set on 
foot. One day will he not also revolutionize Virginia? There 
is a to-morrow after to-day." 

Letters from Theodore Parker to Eli Thayer, 
after the speeches in Congress on colonizing Cen- 
tral America and the " Suicide of Slavery :" 

" Boston, February 26, 1S5S. 

" Hon. Mr. Thayer : 

"Dear Sir, — I heartily thank you for the brave speech you 
made, and the copy thereof you sent me. It seems to me you 
have hit the nail on the head; for we can't prevent the spread 
of an industrious, thoughtful, and enterprising people into the 
domains of an idle, heedless, and unprogressive people, but can 
prevent the fitting out of hordes of pirates. We can organize 
emigration, and send men to the barbarous country who will do 
much service to themselves, to it, and to us. It seems to me not 
difficult to prevent slavery in Central America. The races out 
there have not that immense vigor and love of money which in- 
cline the Anglo-Saxon to establish slavery; and they have not 
the hatred against the negro which marks the Americans. It 
seems to me that a well-conducted emigration scheme may do 
for Central America what it has done already for Kansas, and I 
most heartily thank you for adding this service to the other great 



xviii INTRODUCTION. 

ones you have rendered already. Immigration from the free 
States to Kansas, to Virginia, to Central America, is a most im- 
portant thing. I hope you will live to accomplish the last as 
liappily as you have before the two first, and at the same time 
escape the Presidential Fever. 

' ' Yours truly, 

"TnEODORE Parker." 

" Boston, April 5, 1S5S. 

''Hon. Mr. Thayer: 

" Dear Sir, — I thank 5'ou heartily for sending me your speech 
— which I have just read aloud — and still more for makinu the 
speech itself. You open a new era in the Congressional discus- 
sion of slavery. You attack it with wit — light, easy, subtle, and 
delicate satire, John Q. Adams used satire in his way— and 
that, too, quite powerfully. But his satire was quantitatively 
great. Yours is qualitatively nice and fine. There is no reply 
to such things. Your account of the missionary ' trials, dangers, 
and sufferings' of the South to convert the heathen is masterly; 
it is worthy of Dean Swift, but is finer and subtler than anything 
I remember from him. 

"The more serious part of your speech, too, is quite fine and 
valuable. I shall look with great interest for the other part 
of it. 

"We want all sorts of weapons to attack slavery with — the 
heavy breaching artillery, and the light horse which cuts the 
lines asunder, and routs a whole column before they know the 
enemy is upon them. 

" One day the Soutli will have a deal of trouble from the Pacific 
R. R. Wherever it is built the Northern men will settle and 
make free States. And the further south the Road is located, 
why, the further south will a free State be organized, and it won't 
be possible to have slave States to the north of it. 
"Believe me, 

"Yours truly, 

"Theodore Parker." 



Samuel Bowles's editorial in the Sjpringfield Be- 
puhlican, October 27, 1S5G : 



INTRODUCTION. xix 

"Eli Thayer is the originator, and stands at the head of the 
great scheme of organized emigration into the Territories. He 
has not only a national reputation in connection with this, one 
of the grandest and noblest schemes of the age, but his name is 
known the world over. The border ruffians know him, and the 
Washington ruffians as well." 



The following is an extract from a letter of one 
of the directors of the Emigrant Aid Company and 
a most liberal benefactor of Kansas : 

"Kansas was made a free State through the agency of the 
Emigrant Aid Company, and Eli Thayer was the getter-up, and 
the life, body, and soul of it; and after giving great credit to 
Mr. Lawrence for his liberal benefactions to the object, Mr, 
Thayer was the agency, living and moving, which put the enter- 
prise through. 

" W. B. Spooner." 



Letter of Amos A. Lawrence to the Old Settlers' 
meeting in Bismarck Grove, Lawrence, Kansas, 
September, 1877 : 

"Eli Thayer preached up the Kansas crusade. He originated 
and organized the Emigrant Aid Society in opposition to the 
Southern statesmen and politicians. Early in 1854, several 
months before the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, he wrote 
the charter of that company, and secured its passage through 
the Massachusetts Legislature, of which he vras a member. It 
was he more than any other who turned the tide of Northern 
emigration that year, and made Kansas a free State. He trav- 
ersed the Northern States and aroused the people, depicting the 
glories of that country, and urging the emigrants not to turn 
away from it, but to go and possess it. He never faltered in his 
faith, and he inspired confidence everywhere. 

"A. A. Lawrence." 



XX INTRODUCTION. 

Eedpath's Diary, New Yorh Indejpendent, De- 
cember 16,1875: 

"Charles Sumner said, in January, 1857: 

'"The State of Kansas should be named Thaj^er. I would 
rather accomplish what he has done than have won the victory 
at New Orleans.' " 

Edwaed E. Hale. 
39 Highland Street, Boxlury, Mass., 
March 15, 1889. 



COIS-TENTS, 



CHAPTER I. 

PAaR 

The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and its Effect 
upon the North. — The Year 1854 an Epoch 1 

CHAPTER 11. 

Why and How the Emigrant Aid Company was Formed. . 18 

CHAPTER III. 
Horace Greeley and the "Plan of Freedom " 36 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Work Begun. — Charity vs. Business in Missionary En- 
terprise 52 

CHAPTER V. 

Difficulties and Discouragements. — The Founding of Law- 
rence 63 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Impotence of the Antislavery Disunionists 74 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Abolitionists and the Plan of Freedom 94 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Churches and the Crusade 123 



xxii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

PAGn 

The JSTorthern Disunionists o 137 

CHAPTER X. 
The Progress of the Crusade 164 

CHAPTER XL 
Kansas and John Brown 18G 

CHAPTER Xn. 
The Sinews of War 203 

CHAPTER XIII. 
What Saved Kansas 220 



APPENDIX I. 
Suicide of Slavery 253 

APPENDIX II. 

Speech on the Central American Question 273 

INDEX 287 



THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE, AND ITS EF- 
FECT UPON THE NORTH. THE YEAR 1854 AN EPOCH. 

History gives abundant proof that a brief period 
of time has often determined the character and des- 
tiny of a nation. Such a period is properly called 
its controlhng or dominating epoch. 

In the history of our own country the year 1854 
holds this commanding position, and governs all 
our subsequent years. It was in this year that the 
Slave Power attained its highest eminence, and de- 
molished the last barrier that stood in the way of 
its complete supremacy and its perpetual dominion. 
The executive, the legislative, and the judicial de- 
partments of the Government were entirely within 
its power. Not content, however, with the re- 
peal of the Missouri Compromise, which opened all 
our vast Territorial possessions to Slavery; not 
content with its well-assured and absolute power 
within our national boundaries, it aspired to an- 
nex other countries, and under its direful rule to 
1 



2 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

build up a vast empire "on the corner-stone of 
Slavery." 

In the same year, 1854, a power before unknown 
in the world's history was created and brought into 
use to save to Freedom all our Territories, then open 
by law to the possession and dominion of Slavery. 
This new power was an organized, self-sackificing 
EMIGRATION. Its missiou was to dispute with Sla- 
very every square foot of land exposed to its con- 
trol. A hand-to-hand conflict was to decide be- 
tween the system of free labor and the system of 
slave labor. 

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, in May, 
1854, proved that the legislative restriction of Sla- 
very was simply a delusion, and that the contest be- 
tween Freedom and Slavery, if such a contest were 
yet possible, must be carried on outside of legisla- 
tive halls. It must be a contest on the prairies, 
and the power victorious there would, in due time, 
govern the country. 

Was it possible to bring these two kinds of civ- 
ilization to a decisive struggle? "Was it possible 
to arouse the JSTorth to effective resistance after 
more than thirty years of continuous defeat by 
the South ? 

During all this period of the successful aggres- 
sion and increasing strength of Slavery there was 
in the I^orth corresponding apprehension and alarm. 
On the repeal of the Missouri Compromise the ap- 
prehension became despondency, and the alarm be- 
came despair. 

AVhile this proposed measure, embodied in the 



ALARM OF THE NORTH. 3 

Kansas - Nebraska Bill, was pending before Con- 
gress the ISTorthern States became a scene of 
unprecedented resentment, agitation, and alarm. 
Clergymen in 'New England and other localities 
protested against the measure " in the name of Al- 
mighty God." The people, of all grades and con- 
ditions, with patriotic impulse, gathered in halls, in 
churches, and school-houses to put on record their 
fierce denunciation of the " unparalleled swindle." 
The entire l^orth was one boiling caldron of indig- 
nation. Burning patriotism burst forth in fiery 
words, made still more emphatic by acts of graphic 
significance, which caused Stephen A. Douglas, the 
champion of the bill, to say, " I could travel from 
Boston to Chicago by the light of my own burning 
effigies." William CuUen Bryant said at this time 
in the New York Evening Post: '^If this paper 
were three times its present size, and if it were is- 
sued three times a day instead of once, we could 
not then have space enough to record the action of 
patriotic meetings throughout the E'orthern States 
protesting against the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska 
BiU." 

What was the reason for this universal excite- 
ment ? Why all this vehemence of language and 
of action ? It was all based upon the general con- 
viction in the North that the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise not only doomed Kansas and Nebraska 
to slavery, but also put the Avhole country under 
the domination of the " Black Power " for centu- 
ries to come. 



4 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

In all the numerous protesting mass - meetings 
and conventions the orators were mostly conserva- 
tive men who had never felt the emasculating pow- 
er of sentimental ideas upon the slavery question. 
They were sturdy patriots, however, as were also 
their audiences. 

The protesting meeting in Boston was held in 
Faneuil Hall on the afternoon of the 23d of Febru- 
ary, 1854:. Although a fierce snow-storm was rag- 
ing nearly five thousand citizens assembled in the 
old Cradle of Liberty, and expressed their " surprise 
and alarm " at the proposed " breach of faith " and 
"national dishonor." As this meeting may be 
taken as a sample of thousands of others, its organ- 
ization, and extracts from its speeches and resolu- 
tions, are here given : 

[F)vm the Boston Daily Advertiser. '\ 
Meetinq in Faneuil Hall to Protest against the Re- 
peal OP THE Missouri Compromise, on the afternoon 
OF February 23, 1854. 

President. — Hon. Samuel A. Eliot. 

Vice-Presidents. — Hon. J. V. C. Smith, Mayor of Boston; Hon. 
James Adams, Mayor of Charlestown; Hon. James D. Green, 
Mayor of Cambridge; Hon. Linus B. Comins, Mayor of Rex- 
bury; Hon. Daniel C. Baker, Mayor of Lynn; Hon. Asabel Hunt- 
ington, Mayor of Salem ; Hon. Benjamin Gorbam, Hon. Na- 
tban Appleton, Hon. Abbot Lawrence, Hon. Robert C. Win- 
tbrop, late members of Congress ; Hon. Charles Wells, Hon. 
Josiah Quincy, Jr., Hon. John P. Bigelow, late Mayors of Bos- 
ton; and more than fifty others of the most influential citizens 
of Boston. 

This meeting resolved: "That the propositions now pending 
in Congress for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise have 
justly tilled our community with surprise and alarm. 



PROTESTING MEETINGS AND SPEECHES. 5 

•* That we protest against such repeal as a deliberate breach of 
the plighted faith of the nation, as tending to weaken the claims 
of our common country upon the confidence and affection of its 
people." 

Speeches were made by the President, Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, 
Hon. J. Thomas Stevenson, Hon. George S. Hillard, Hon. Rob- 
ert C. Winthrop, and Rev. George W. Blagden, D.D. 

Extract from Mr. Hillard's speech : 

"What most tries our spirits is the claim, so constantly put 
forth, that liberty is, in its essence, no better than slavery; that 
both have the same right to come into court and hold up their 
hands before God and man. . . . 

"Our Southern brethren should understand that there is an 
antislavery sentiment at the North which is neither Abolitionism 
nor Free-soilism. It is a principle as well as a sentiment— fed 
by the salient streams which flow from the mind and heart. It 
is at once a logical deduction of the understanding and a primi- 
tive instinct of the soul. . . . 

"We found our protest against the bill now before Congress 
upon the fact that it is a breach of the plighted faith of the na- 
tion; and further, because it is a breach of the plighted faith of 
the nation in favor of slavery." 

Extract from the speech of Hon. Kobert C. Win- 
throp : 

"I can never, certainly, be unprepared to declare my earnest 
and unhesitating opposition to the repeal of a solemn stipulation 
which has prohibited slavery forever within the limits of that 
vast imperial domain whose destiny is now about to be decided. 
When I am not ready at any hour, in any presence, under any 
circumstances, to make this declaration, I shall, at least, take 
good care not to show my face in Faneuil Hall. Fellow-citi- 
zens, in every view which I can take of this Nebraska Bill— in 
its relations to the poor Indian, in its relations to slavery, in its 
relations to the national faith, the national honor, the national 
harmony, in every view alike— I cannot but deplore its introduc- 
tion. I cannot but deplore its passage. . . . 



6 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

"Upon what grounds is such a measure justified? Why, I 
am amazed, Mr. President, as you certainly must be also, when 
I find it seriously advanced and maintained that the adjustment 
of 1850 was understood or intended to repeal or supersede the 
old Compromise of 1820. . . . 

"What, sir ! A constructive repeal of a formal compact of 
more than thirty years' standing! A solemn covenant over- 
turned by an inference; superseded by what is called a principle; 
emanating— let me rather say extorted — from a settlement of a 
wholly different and independent issue ! Who ever heard of 
such a proceeding or of such a proposition as this? . . . 

"But, fellow -citizens, whatever others may do or say, our 
course is plain; and I rejoice that there is neither halting nor 
hesitation in pursuing it. I rejoice to perceive, from all the 
circumstances of this and other occasions, that, whatever may 
have been our differences heretofore upon other topics, a firm, 
earnest, and united remonstrance against a measure so full at 
once of evil omen and of real wrong as this is about to go up to 
the capital of the nation from this time -honored Temple of 
Freedom." 

A similar meeting was subsequently held by the 
German residents of Boston, while in every city 
and in nearly all the towns through the North 
there were patriotic gatherings actuated by like 
feelings, and uttering like protests. 

The Compromise of 1820 was regarded at the 
time in the Northern States as a concession to 
Slavery. But later than this, Calhoun had com- 
bined the South in the interests of slave prop- 
erty, both for offensive and defensive action ; and 
the North had witnessed the aggressions and tri- 
umphs of this oligarchy continuously ever since. 
Many had come to believe, as some had been for 
a long time saying, that Slavery had always had 
its own way, and always would have it. Up to 



FREE-SOIL PARTY POWERLESS. 7 

this year — 1854 — it had met with no effective 
resistance whatever. Even now there was no po- 
Utical organization of any influence or power to 
resist it. There was, indeed, the Free -soil party, 
created by Yan Buren in 1848, but it was now 
only one -third as strong in numbers as it had 
been at the time of its birth. A few of its mem- 
bers, by a skilful coalition with the other parties in 
several States, had become members of Congress ; 
but so little faith did these have in its stability 
or future power that nearly all of them in 1852 
advocated the disbanding of the organization and 
the fusing with the Whig party. At a caucus 
held in "Washington in that year Salmon P. Chase 
and John P. Hale advocated this course, Joshua R. 
Giddings assented to it, Charles Sumner did not 
oppose it. Charles Allen, of Worcester, was the 
only speaker who resisted the proposition, but his 
resistance was so strenuous and effective that the 
project was abandoned. 

This party then was not of a kind to give any 
hope or comfort to the ISTorth. As to the Garrison 
Abolitionists, they were still less powerful and 
utterly impracticable. They were outside of all 
parties, and still more outside of public confidence 
and sympathy. They had always impaired and 
crippled every cause they had advocated. Every 
political organization dreaded any contact with 
them, and would have regarded their indorsement 
as the greatest possible calamity — the harbinger 
of certain defeat and annihilation. So they were 
not even thought of as a power to resist either the 



8 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

encroacliments of Slavery then threatened, or any 
future encroachments. For a quarter of a century 
they had been making violent efforts to put an end 
to slavery, as they maintained, through the destruc- 
tion of the Church, the Constitution, and the Union. 
By their own confession, they had seen that power 
"go on from victory to victory," becoming more 
and more irresistible by the lapse of time. They 
were therefore of too little account to be consid- 
ered in the impending emergency. 

Evidence abounds to prove the almost universal 
conviction of the hopelessness of resisting the pow- 
er of Slavery. 

In the Liberator^ June 15, 1855, Wendell Phillips 
says, in substance : 

"Upon the advent of Charles Sumner in "Washington, John 
Davis said to him, ' Mr. Sumner, I will tell you the result of the 
experience of my long public service — Slavery rules everything 
here.' . . . 

"The testimony of John Quincy Adams was the same. . . . 

"Edmund Quincy, after a life that had uttered the same 
truth, with eighty years on his brow, he tells us, in his recent 
letter, that with the capital and the prejudices and the Constitu- 
tion against the antislavery movement, he hardly sees where 
there is any ground for hope of its success. . . . 

" It is from voices like these that we learn the hidden disease 
that eats out the nation's life." 

Hon. Hannibal Hamhn, in February, 1888, in his 
address before the Yeteran Kepublican Club, said : 

" Ah, how well do I remember the conflicts through which 
we passed in attempting to keep this curse out of the free Terri- 
tories of the land! We sought to prevent its polluting touch, 
and step by step we saw our failure. It was humiliating beyond 
description. . . 



"SLAVERY CONTROLS EVERYTHING." 9 

" How we struggled! Year after year that struggle was con- 
tinued, till finally the doctrine of pro-slavery dominated every 
department of the Government. It sat enthroned in the White 
House, and there was no road to popular favor but in submis- 
sion to Slavery." 

Theodore Parker, in Music Hall, Boston, July 2, 

1854 {Liberator, August 10, ISott), said : 

" In the steady triumph of despotism, ten years more like the 
ten years past and it will be all over with the liberties of Amer- 
ica. Everything must go down, and the heel of the tyrant will 
be on our necks. It will be all over with the rights of man in 
America, and you and I must go to Australia, to Italy, or to Si- 
beria for our freedom, or perish with the liberty which our fa- 
thers fought for and secured to themselves, not to their faithless 
sons. Shall America thus miserably perish? Such is the aspect 
of things to-day." 

Again, he says (see Liberator, May 19, 1854) : 

"There is not one spot of free soil from Nootka Sound to 
Key West. In no part of the country is there freedom. The 
Supreme Court is a slave court, the Senate is a slave Senate, the 
Senators are overseers, Mr. Douglas is a great overseer, and Mr. 
Everett a little overseer. The press is generally the friend of 
Slavery." 

Colonel Benton, in his review of the Dred Scott 
decision, says : 

" Up to Mr. Pierce's administration the plan had been defen- 
sive; that is to say, to make the secession of the South a measure 
of self-defence against the abolition encroachments and crusades 
of the North. In the time of Mr. Pierce the plan became offen- 
sive; that is to say, to commence the expansion of slavery, and 
the acquisition of territory to spread it over, so as to overpower 
the North with new slave States and to drive them out of the 
Union. . . . 

"The rising in the free States, in consequence of the ab- 
rogation of the Missouri Compromise, checked these schemes, 
1^ 



10 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

and limited the success of tlie disunionists to tlie revival of the 
agitation which enables them to wield the South against the 
North in all the federal elections and all federal legislation. 
Accidents and events have given the party a strange pre-eminence 
— under Jackson's administration proclaimed for treason: since 
at the head of the Government and the Democratic party. The 
death of Harrison and the accession of Tyler was their first 
great lift ; the election of Mr. Pierce was their culminating 
point." 

Like testimony could be increased almost with- 
out limit, but perhaps this is sufficient to show the 
absolute control of Slavery in the year 1854. The 
speeches in Congress, however, and the editorials of 
influential journalists, prove that there was no hope 
of rescuing Kansas from the grasp of this resistless 
power, should the Kansas-IS'ebraska Bill become a 
law. A few examples of such evidence are here 
inserted. Altogether they are a very minute frac- 
tion of such testimony which could be easily col- 
lected from numerous other Congressional speeches, 
from editorials, from speeches made at all the mass- 
meetings through the North to protest against the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise. These are all 
on record and within reach of the future historian. 

The following may therefore be taken as speci- 
mens of innumerable records representing the 
Northern sentiment. 

Charles Sumner, in his speech in the Senate, on 
February 21, 1854, said : 

"It is clear beyond dispute that by the overthrow of this Pro- 
hibition, slavery will be quickened and slaves themselves multi- 
plied, while new room and verge will be secured for the gloomy 
operations of slave law, under which free labor will droop and 



SUMNER, GIDDINGS, SEWARD. 11 

a vast territory be smitten witli sterility. Sir, a blade of grass 
would not grow where the horse of Attila had trod; nor can 
any true prosperity spring up in the footprints of a slave. 
******* 

"You are asked to destroy a safeguard of Freedom, conse- 
crated by solemn compact, under which the country is reposing 
in the security of peace, and thus confirm the supremacy of 
slavery. 

******* 

"The simple question which challenges answer is, whether 
Nebraska shall be preserved in the condition of Illinois or sur- 
rendered to that of Missouri? Surely this cannot be treated 
lightly." 

In the House of Kepresentatives, May 16, 1854, 
Hon. Joshua E. Giddings, of Ohio, said : 

"Mr. Chairman, — "Who does not know that the Southern and 
servile presses are already proclaiming that when this bill shall 
have been passed, slavery shall next be admitted into Minnesota, 
Washington, and Oregon? Who does not know that the Presi- 
dent and Cabinet are laboring to prepare the public mind for a 
war upon Spain, with the undisguised purpose of maintaining 
slavery in Cuba? That they are prepared to sacrifice the lives 
of our citizens by thousands, in order to stay the progress of civ- 
ilization in that island? That the whole administration press of 
the country sustains these executive views? That Southern pa- 
pers insist that we shall also conquer St. Domingo and restore 
slavery there? Then form an alliance with slave-holding Brazil, 
as the only nation besides ours that legalizes the crimes of the 
peculiar institution? That we shall then restore the African 
slave-trade, and thus disgrace our Government and sink it to a 
piratical power for propagating oppression and crime? . . . 

•'This measure is treason to humanity, treason to liberty, and 
treason to the Constitution. 

******* 

" To surrender this vast Territory to slavery will exclude free 
men from it; for, as I have said, free laborers, bred up with feel- 
ings of self-respect, cannot, and will not, mingle with slaves. 
For these reasons it is most obvious that the character of the 



13 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

States to be carved out of this Territory will be determined by 
that of the government now to be established. If the Territory 
be settled by slave-holders, the States will of course be slave- 
holding States." 

Hon. William H. Seward, in the United States 
Senate, on May 25, 1854, said : 

"The sun has set for the last time upon the guaranteed and 
certain liberties of all the unsettled and unorganized portions of 
the American continent that lie within the jurisdiction of the 
United States. To-morrow's sun will rise in dim eclipse over 
them. How long that obscuration shall last is known only to 
the Power that directs and controls all human events. For my- 
self, I know only this: that no human power can prevent its 
coming on, and that its passing off will be hastened and secured 
by others than those now here, and perhaps only by those belong- 
ing to future generations. 

"Sir, it would be almost factious to offer further resistance to 
this measure here. Indeed, successful resistance was never ex- 
pected to be made in this hall. The Senate is an old battle- 
ground, on which have been fought many contests, and always, 
at least since 1820, with fortune adverse to the cause of equal 
and universal freedom. . . . 

"Notwithstanding all this, however, what has occurred here 
and in the country during this contest has compelled a convic- 
tion that slavery will gain something, and freedom will endure 
a severe though I hope not an irretrievable loss. The slave- 
holding States are passive, quiet, content, and satisfied with the 
prospective boon, and the free States are excited and alarmed 
with fearful forebodings and apprehensions. . . . 

"I say only that there may be an extent of intervention, of 
aggression on your side, which may induce the North at some 
time, either in this or some future generation, to adopt your tac- 
tics and follow your example." 

Extract from the speech of Hon. Benjamin F. 
Wade, in the United States Senate, May 25, 1854 : 

Mr. PREsroENT, — I do not intend to debate this subject further. 
The humiliation of the North is complete and overwhelming. 



WADE, CHASE, AND GREELEY. 13 

No Southern enemy of hers can wish her deeper degradation. 
God knows I feel it keenly enough, and I have no desire to pro- 
long the melancholy spectacle. I know full well that no words 
of mine can save the country from this impending dishonor, 
this great meditated wrong, which is big with danger to the good 
neighborhood of the different sections of the country, if not to 
the stability of the Union itself. But full well I know that this 
hated measure is to pass ; it is a foregone conclusion, and can- 
not be averted or delayed. . . . 

"Now, Mr. President, while this great wrong which you are 
about to perpetrate — this wrong to the North, this wrong to hu- 
manity, this wrong to mankind everywhere — shall remain upon 
your statute-book unrepealed, I shall take but little interest in 
whatever else you may do. . . . 

' ' An empire is to be transformed from freedom to slavery, 
and the people must not be consulted on such a question, so big 
with weal or woe to the millions who are to people these vast 
regions in all time to come. 

"To-morrow, I believe, there is to be an eclipse of the sun, 
and I think that the sun in the heavens and the glory of this 
republic should both go into obscurity and darkness together. 
Let the bill then pass. It is a proper occasion for so dark and 
damning a deed." 

The following is from the speech of Hon. Sal- 
mon P. Chase, United States Senate, May 25, 
185i: 

"This bill doubtless paves the way for the approach of new, 
alarming, and perhaps fatal dangers to our country. It is the 
part of freemen atod lovers of freedom to stand upon their guard 
and prepare for the worst events. It is because this bill puts in 
peril great and precious interests, reverses the ancient and settled 
policy of the Government, and breaks down a great safeguard 
of liberty, that I have felt myself constrained to resist it firmly 
and persistently, though without avail. All that now remains 
for me is to enter against it, as I now do, my earnest and solemn 
protest, and to join with my colleague in recording against it 
the vote of Ohio." 



14 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Horace Greeley, in the New York Tribune^ Jan- 
uary 6, 1854, says : 

"The Thirty-first Congress inaugurated the era of submission 
to slavery. Since then everything has gone on swimmingly in 
this line. Not only was the slavery question compromised, but 
the character and reputation and principles of hundreds of our 
public men w^ere compromised by the same operation. There 
was a general debauch and demoralization throughout all polit- 
ical circles, as was clearly manifest in the triumphant run of 
General Pierce. 

"If General Taylor had lived, and if the Wilmot Proviso doc- 
trine had substantially triumphed, as it would have done through 
the instrumentality of his policy, we should have seen the re- 
verse of what we now see. Freedom's battle was fought and 
lost in 1850, and the cowards and traitors have all run to the 
■winning side." 

Again, in the same paper, March 14, 1854 : 

"We as a nation are ruled by the Black Power. It is com- 
posed of tyrants. See, then, how the North is always beaten. 
The Black Power is a unit. It is a steady, never-failing force. 
It is a real power. Thus far it has been the only unvarying 
power of the country, for it never surrenders and never wavers. 
It has always governed, and now governs more than ever." 

Same paper, May 24, 1854 : 

" The revolution is accomplished, and Slavery is king! How 
long shall this monarch reign? This is now the question for the 
Northern people to answer. Their representatives have crowned 
the new potentate, and the people alone can depose him. If we 
were a few steps further advanced in the drama of reaction, he 
could only be hurled from his seat through a bloody contest." 

Again, June 24, 1854 : 

"Not even by accident is any advantage left for liberty in 
their bill. It is all blackness, without a single gleam of light — a 
desert without one spot of verdure — a crime that can show no 
redeeming point. . . . 



KANSAS CONCEDED TO SLAVERY. 15 

" A Territory wliicli one short year ago was unanimously con- 
sidered by all, North and South, as sacredly secured by irrepeal- 
able law to freedom foreyer, has been foully betrayed by 
traitor hearts and traitor voices, and surrendered to slavery." 

The above extracts prove the gloom and de- 
spondency of the North in view of the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise. The people of the free 
States believed, as they had every reason to be- 
lieve, that by that act Kansas and Nebraska v^ould 
become slave States, and the power of Slavery 
would be thereby made absolute and perpetual. 

There is one paragraph in Senator Seward's 
speech which is so unlike the other parts of it, and 
so unlike anything ever before uttered by him, that 
it requires exjDlanation. The paragraph is the fol- 
lowing : *' Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave 
States, since there is no escaping your challenge. 
I accept it in behalf of freedom. We will engage 
in competition for the virgin soil of Kansas, and 
God give the victory to the side that is stronger in 
numbers, as it is in right." To this passage has 
been given the credit of inaugurating the Kansas 
contest. But this defiance of Mr. Seward was very 
far from being original. Many weeks before, the 
plan and purposes of the Emigrant Aid Company 
had been made public. Their charter, granted by 
the Massachusetts Legislature, allowing them a cap- 
ital of $5,000,000, was an earlier and stronger de- 
fiance of the slaveocracy of the South than any- 
thing ever uttered in the halls of our national 
Legislature. It had been published everywhere, 
North and South. There was not a member of 



16 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Congress who did not know it. It was the origin 
and the basis of Mr. Seward's defiance. But while 
the E"ew York Senator " cast this anchor to the 
windward," he proves clearly in the extract from 
another part of the same speech that he had no 
faith whatever in the methods proposed by this 
company. He conceded Kansas and the other Ter- 
ritories to slavery, and said if they shall ever be 
made free, "that result will be hastened and se- 
cured^ by others than those now here, and per- 
haps by only those belonging to future genera- 
tions." 

The same criticism can properly be made upon 
Charles Sumner's remark at the time of the passage 
of the bill: "Thus it puts Freedom and Slavery 
face to face and bids them grapple. Who can 
doubt the result?" In Mr. Sumner's speech upon 
the same subject, made three months earlier, there 
is no expression of faith that the freedom of Kan- 
sas could be secured by a conflict between the 
forces of Freedom and Slavery. The Emigrant 
Aid Company gave him and Mr. Seward and the 
country that revelation. But the following ex- 
tract from the same speech of the Massachusetts 
Senator proves that he, too, had no hope whatever 
of a speedy triumph of freedom. He plainly ex- 
presses his behef that slavery will be established 
in both Territories, but at the same time cherishes 
the hope of a subsequent resurrection of freedom 
in the indefinite future. He says : 

" In a Christian land, and in an age of civilization, a time-hon- 
ored statute of freedom is struck down; opening the way to all 



SUMNER AND SEWARD HOPELESS. 17 

the countless woes and wrongs of human bondage. Among the 
crimes of history another is about to be recorded, which no tears 
can blot out, and which, in better days, will be read with uni- 
versal shame. . . . 

"Standing at the very grave of freedom in Kansas and Ne- 
braska, I lift myself to the vision of that happy resurrection by 
which freedom will be secured hereafter, not only in these Ter- 
ritories, but everywhere under the National Government." 



CHAPTER II. 

WHY AND HOW THE EMIGRANT AID COMPANY WAS 
FORMED. 

On May 30, 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, con- 
taining the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, was 
signed by President Pierce, and became the law of 
the land. When this news reached the Northern 
States the bells were tolled for the death of Free- 
dom. The slave States, with thirty-five years of 
political supremacy and the prestige of this last 
great victory over the North, with perfect disci- 
pline and irresistible power, were confident of un- 
disputed control in the Government for generations 
to come. They already had the Chief Executive, 
his Cabinet, the Supreme Court, both houses of 
Congress, and the army and navy to do their bid- 
ding. Great as was their present power, their pro- 
spective power was even much more alarming. 
Kansas and Nebraska, with all the Territories west 
and south of them, were to become slave States. 
Five more were to be made of Texas. The purpose 
of acquiring Cuba and Central America for their 
further aggrandizement was developing into action. 
Why, then, should the South doubt for an instant 
the certainty of her perpetual power? In a few 
years her Senators in Congress would nearly double 
the number from the North. Their skill in di- 



POWER AND PROSPECTS OF SLAVERY. 19 

plomacy and politics, acquired by unremitting 
practice and study, much excelled that of the 
J^orthern people, whose minds were occupied by a 
manifold system of industries requiring constant 
attention, as well as by a great number of social, 
commercial, charitable, religious, and educational 
organizations. ISTo wonder that we were hopeless 
and helpless. We had no political organization of 
any strength to oppose to slavery. The Liberty 
party, which for a few years maintained a kind 
of indefinite, nebulous existence, always without 
strength or the faintest hope of success, had been 
absorbed in 1848 by Yan Buren's Free-soil party. 
This party was more the offspring of spleen and 
revenge than of antislavery principle. Yan Buren 
desired to gratify his personal hostility to Lewis 
Cass, the Democratic candidate for the presidency, 
while the AYhio^ contingent of Massachusetts was 
led by men who had long chafed under the leader- 
ship of Webster and Winthrop, of Everett and 
Lawrence, and who had waited for years for an 
opportunity to bolt from the party. The nomina- 
tion of Taylor in 1848 gave them a sufficient ex- 
cuse (in their own estimation) for such action. So 
they readily joined the disaffected Deijiocrats of 
ISTew York in the Buffalo Convention of that year. 
But the new party, without securing one electoral 
vote, and without the slightest prospect of ever sus- 
taining by law their one cardinal principle of ex- 
cluding slavery from the Territories by Act of Con- 
gress grew less and less every year, until in 1853 
their votes in New York and New Eno^land were 



20 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

only one-third as many as in ISIS."^ iJs'ow, in tlie 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise they had seen 
their idol shattered beyond all hope of repair, and 
were as hopeless and helpless as were the Phihs- 
tines when they found their god Dagon flat upon 
his face before the ark of the Lord. 

In order, ho^yever, to make some show of re- 
sistance to the overwhelming ruin which had over- 
taken them, they raised in the Senate the cry of 
" repeal," which was feebly echoed by a few coun- 
try journals of their faith. But it very soon be- 
came apparent that, with the greatest possible 
success, there could be no repeal in less than seven 
years. In that time the Territories of Kansas and 
J^ebraska would be admitted into the Union as 
slave States, and the slave power fortified in its 
control of the Government. So this cry of repeal 
soon died away, like the bleating of innocent 

* The wonderful increase of the antislavery vote in 1855 and 
1856 was brought about by the illegal assaults of the slave power 
upon the citizens of Kansas. The figures in New England and 
New York from 1848 to 1854 are here given. It will be seen 
that the fall elections of 1854 were little influenced by the re- 
peal of the Missouri Compromise. 

New England. New York. 

1848 73,368 120,479 

1849 79,454 1,311 

1850 42,270 3,410 

1851 43,401 000 

1852 57,143 25,359 

1853 63,668 000 

(Repeal of the Missouri Compromise.) 
1854 79.633 000 



FOLLY OF ATTEMPTED REPEAL. 21 

lambs after the wolves have broken down the bar- 
riers of the sheepfold. The Free-soil poUticians 
proposed no other plan of resistance by voice or 
pen. 

"As they drifted on their path, 

There was silence deep as death; 
And the boldest held his breath 
For a time." 

But although the majority of the Free-soil 
party made and adhered to that organization for 
selfish motives, which had little or no reference to 
antislavery, there were many of its rank and file, 
and some of its leaders, true to principle. Such 
were Salmon P. Chase, John P. Hale, Charles 
Francis Adams, Charles Sumner, Charles Allen, 
and Henry "Wilson. But among the supporters of 
Taylor in 1848 there were thousands of influen- 
tial leaders, much more practical, while no less 
opposed to slavery. Examples of this kind were 
Horace Greeley, William H. Seward, Thurlow 
Weed, Eobert C. Winthrop, and Abbott Lawrence. 
These were quite as earnest advocates of the leg- 
islative restriction of slavery as any of the Free- 
soilers. They were all for the Constitution and 
the Union, and hostile to anarchy, in whatever 
form, or under whatever disguises. They sought 
to restrain slavery in a legal and fair way, but 
were entirely powerless to accomplish their pur- 
pose, though they struggled for it bravely for 
many years. 

In this condition of affairs, what was there left 
upon which the North could base any hope of 



23 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

eflPectual resistance to the spread and perpetuity 
of slavery ? Every effort of politicians to restrict, 
and every effort of Abolitionists to extinguish it, 
had only given it greater strength for the pres- 
ent, and better security for the future. Had the 
Southern leaders been content to leave the Mis- 
souri Compromise undisturbed, and simply to open 
the Territories of Kansas and lN"ebraska to settle- 
ment, their cherished cause would have been se- 
cure. These Territories would have been speedily 
settled by a pro-slavery population, and, after ad- 
mission to the Union, could easily have changed 
their Constitutions to suit the wishes of slave-hold- 
ers. Or, they could have relied ujDon the decision 
of the Supreme Court — soon to come in the Dred 
Scott case — that slavery could not be constitution- 
ally restricted by Congress. In either case it Avould 
have been impossible to unite the Whig and Dem- 
ocratic parties of the North to make these Terri- 
tories free. Both would have submitted quietly to 
any legal and apparently fair process of extending 
slavery, rather than to endanger the union of the 
States. 

But the South, stimulated unreasonably by her 
former success, ventured foolishly to overthrow a 
time-honored compact, and subject herself to a 
charge of bad faith. In the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise she illustrated the words of the sacred 
writer : " Pride goeth before destruction, and a 
haughty spirit before a fall." By this act she had 
made it possible to combine all political parties in 
the North against the extension of slavery, should 



THE PLAN OF FKEEDOM. 23 

the right method of doing this great work be well 
presented and faithfully urged. All were ready 
now to rebuke the arrogance of slavery, and also 
to end its existence, if that could be done in ac- 
cordance with the Constitution and the Union. 

Fortunately a feasible plan for this work had 
been prepared and carried to theoretical perfection 
months before the Missouri Compromise was re- 
pealed, and in anticipation of that event — I mean 
the plan of the Emigrant Aid Company. 

During the winter of 1854 I was, for the second 
time, a Eepresentative from Worcester in the Leg- 
islature of Massachusetts. I had felt to some de- 
gree the general alarm in anticipation of the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise, but not the 
depression and despondency that so affected others 
who regarded the cause of Hberty as hopelessly 
lost. As the winter wore away I began to have a 
conviction which came to be ever present, that 
something must be done to end the domination of 
slavery. I felt a personal responsibility, and 
though I long struggled to evade the question, 
I found it to be impossible. I pondered upon it 
by day, and dreamed of it by night. By what 
plan could this great problem be solved? What 
force could be effectively opposed to the power 
that seemed about to spread itself over the conti- 
nent? 

After much and very careful study, I concluded 
that if this work could be done at all, it must be 
done by an entirely new organization, depending 
for success upon methods never before applied. 



24 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

This was an organized emigration, guided and 
guarded by a responsible business company, whose 
capital should precede the emigrants, and prepare 
the way for them b}^ such investments as should 
be best calculated to secure their comfort and pro- 
tection. This emigration must also be of a kind 
before unknown, since it must, in this case, be self- 
sacrificing and voluntary, whereas all historical 
migrations had been either forced or self-seeking. 
To present this new method of bringing two 
hostile civilizations face to face upon the disputed 
prairies of Kansas in such a way as to unite in its 
support the entire Northern people of whatever 
parties, was the work next to be done. On this 
appeal must depend the future of our country. 
Then arose the important question. Was it possible 
to create such an agency to save Kansas ? I be- 
lieved the time for such a noble and heroic devel- 
opment had come ; but could hope be inspired, and 
the pulsations of life be started beneath the ribs of 
death ? The projected plan would call upon men 
to risk life and property in establishing freedom in 
Kansas. They would be called to pass over mill- 
ions of acres of better land than any in the dis- 
puted Territory was supposed to be, land in com- 
munities where peace and plenty were assured, to 
meet the revolver and the bowie-knife defending 
slavery and assailing freedom. Could such men 
be found, they would certainly prove themselves 
to be the very highest types of Christian man- 
hood, much above all other emigrants. Could such 
men be found ? 



PLAN ANNOUNCED IN WORCESTER. 25 

It happened that on the evening of the 11th of 
March, 1854, there was a large meeting in the City 
Hall in Worcester, to protest against the passage of 
the Kansas - Nebraska Bill and the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise. I attended the meeting, and 
not having yet taken counsel of any one, deter- 
mined to see how the plan would be received by 
an intelligent New England audience without any 
preparation for the announcement. Accordingly, 
making the last speech of the evening, I for the 
first time disclosed the plan. The Worcester /§>?/ 
of March 13th has the conclusion of my speech, as 
follows : 

"It is time now to think of what is to be done in the event of 
the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Now is the time to 
organize an opposition that will utterly defeat the schemes of 
the selfish men who misrepresent the nation at Washington. 
Let every eHort be made, and every appliance be brought to bear, 
to fill up that vast and fertile Territory with free men — with 
men who hate slavery, and who will drive the hideous thing 
from the broad and beautiful plains where they go to raise their 
free homes. [Loud cheers.] 

"I for one am willing to be taxed one-fourth of my time or of 
my earnings until this be done — until a barrier of free hearts 
and strong hands shall be built around the land our fathers con- 
secrated to freedom, to be her heritage forever. [Loud cheers.] " 

If instead of this impetuous, spontaneous, and en- 
thusiastic response there had been only a moderate 
approbation of the plan, the country would never 
have heard of the Emigrant Aid Company. I did 
not expect that all who a]iplauded would go to 
Kansas, or even that any of them would go, but 
I knew that whatever a New England audience 



26 THE KxVNSAS CRUSADE. 

would applaud in that manner I could find men to 
perform. There was no more doubt in my mind 
from that time. 

Without further delay I drew up the charter of 
the ^' Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company," and 
by personal solicitation secured the corporators. I 
introduced the matter in the Legislature and had it 
referred to the committee on the judiciary, of which 
James D. Colt, afterwards a justice of the State Su- 
preme Court, was chairman. At the hearing I ap- 
peared before the committee and said in behalf of 
the petition : 

"This is a plan to prevent the forming of any more slave 
States. If you will give us the charter there shall never be an- 
other slave State admitted into the Union. In the halls of Con- 
gress we have been invariably beaten for more than thirty years, 
and it is now time to change the battle-ground from Congress to 
the prairies, where we shall invariably triumph." 

Mr. Colt replied : 

"We arc willing to gratify you by reporting favorably your 
charter, but we all believe it to be impracticable and utterly fu- 
tile. Here you are fifteen hundred miles from the battle-ground, 
while the most thickly settled portion of Missouri lies on the 
eastern border of Kansas, and can in one day blot out all you 
can do in a year. Neither can you get men who now have 
peaceful and happy homes in the East to risk the loss of every- 
thing by going to Kansas." 

But Mr. Colt reported in favor of the charter, 
and it passed, though it cost its author much labor, 
for not one member either of the Senate or House 
had any faith in the measure. 

The following is the first section of the charter : 



COMPANY CHARTERED. 27 

"Sec. 1. Beujamiu C. Clark, Isaac Livermore, Charles Allen, 
Isaac Davis, William G, Bates, Stephen C. Phillips, Charles C. 
Hazewell, Alexander H. Bullock, Henry Wilson, James S. Whit- 
ne}', Samuel E. Sewall, Samuel G. Howe, James Holland, Moses 
Kimball, James D. Green, Francis W. Bird, Otis Clapp, Anson 
Burliugame, Eli Thayer, and Otis Rich, their associates, success- 
ors and assigns, are hereby made a corporation, by the name of 
the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, for the purpose of 
assisting emigrants to settle in the West; and for this purpose, 
they shall have all the powers and privileges, and be subject to 
all the duties, restrictions, and liabilities, set forth in the thirty- 
eighth and forty- fourth chapters of the Revised Statutes." 

The charter was signed by the Governor on the 
26th of April. On the 4:th of May a meeting was 
held at the State-house, by the corporators and 
others, and a committee chosen to report a plan of 
organization and work. This committee consisted 
of Eli Thayer, Alexander H. Bullock, and Edward 
E. Hale of AVorcester, Eichard Hildreth and Otis 
Clapp of Boston. They made a report at an ad- 
journed meeting showing the proposed operation 
of the enterprise, from which the following is an 
extract : 

"The Emigrant Aid Company has been incorporated to pro- 
tect emigrants, as far as may be, from the inconveniences we 
have enumerated. Its duty is to organize emigration to the West 
and bring it into a system. This duty, which should have been 
attempted long ago, is particularly essential now in the critical 
position of the Western Territories. 

"The Legislature has granted a charter, with a capital suf- 
ficient for these purposes. This capital is not to exceed $5,000,- 
000. In no single year are assessments to a larger amount than 
ten per cent, to be called for. The corporators believe that if 
the company be organized at once, as soon as the subscriptions 
to the stock amounts to |1, 000, 000, the annual income to be de- 



28 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

rived from that amount, and the subsequent subscriptions, may 
be so appropriated as to render most essential service to the em- 
igrants ; to plant a free State in Kansas, to the lasting advantage 
of the country; and to return a handsome profit to the stock- 
holders upon their investment. 

******* 

"To accomplish the object in view it is recommended, 1st, 
that the Directors contract immediately with some one of the 
competing lines of travel for the conveyance of twenty thousand 
persons from the Northern and Middle States, to that place in 
the West which the Directors shall select for their first settle- 
ment. 

"It is believed that passage may be obtained, in so large a 
contract, at half the price paid by individuals. "We recommend 
that emigrants receive the full advantage of this diminution in 
price, and that they be forwarded in companies of two hundred, 
as they apply, at these reduced rates of travel. 

" 2d. It is recommended that at such points as the Directors 
select for places of settlement, they shall at once construct a 
boarding-house or receiving-house, in which three hundred per- 
sons may receive temporary accommodation on their arrival; 
and that the number of such houses be enlarged as necessity 
may dictate. The new-comers or their families may thus be 
provided for in the necessary interval which elapses while they 
are making their selection of a location. 

"3d. It is recommended that the Directors procure and send 
forward steam saw-mills, and such other machines as shall be of 
constant service in a new settlement, which cannot, however, be 
purchased or carried out conveniently by individual settlers. 
These machines may be leased or run by the company's agents. 
At the same time it is desirable that a printing-press be sent out, 
and a weekly newspaper established. This would be the organ 
of the company's agents; would extend information regarding 
its settlement; and be from the very first an index of that love 
of freedom and of good morals which it is to be hoped may 
characterize the State now to be formed. 

"4th. It is recommended that the company's agents locate 
and take up for the company's benefit the sections of land in 
which the boarding-houses and mills arc located, and no others 



PLAN OF OPERATION. 29 

And further, that whenever the Territory shall be organized as 

a free State, the Directors shall dispose of all its interests, then 

replace, by the sales, the money laid out, declare a dividend to 

the stockholders, and 

"5th. That they then select a new field, and make similar 

arrangements for the settlement and organization of another 

free State of this Union. 

******* 

"Under the plan proposed, it will be but two or three years 
before the company can dispose of its property in the Territory 
first occupied, and reimburse itself for its first expenses. At 
that time, in a State of 70,000 inhabitants, it will possess several 
reservations of 640 acres each, on wliich are boarding-houses 
and mills, and the churches and schools which it has rendered 
necessary. From these centres will the settlements of the State 
have radiated. In other words, these points will then be the 
large commercial positions of the new State. If there were only 
one such, its value, after the region should be so far peopled, 
would make a very large dividend to the company which sold it, 
besides restoring the original capital with which to enable it to 

attempt the same adventure elsewhere. 

* * * * * * * 

" It is recommended that a meeting of the stockholders be 
called on the first Wednesday in June, to organize the company 
for one year, and that the corporators at this time make a tem- 
porary organization, with power to obtain subscriptions to the 
stock and make any necessary preliminary arrangements. 

"Eli Thayer, 
"For tJie Gommitiee.** 

It will be seen by the above that the enterprise 
was intended to be a money-making affair as well 
as a philanthropic undertaking. The fact that we 
intended to make it pay the investors pecuniarily 
brought upon us the reproaches and condemnation 
of some of the Abolitionists, at least one of whom 
declared in my hearing that he had rather give 
over the Territory to slavery than to make a cent 



30 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

out of the operation of saving it to freedom. In 
all my emigration schemxes I intended to make the 
results return a profitable dividend in cash. 

In pursuance of the last recommendation of the 
above report, the corporators made a temporary 
organization by the choice of Eli Thayer as presi- 
dent pro te7n.,sind Dr. Thomas H. Webb, of Boston, 
as secretary, and opened books of subscription in 
Boston, Worcester, and New York. 

The capital stock of the Massachusetts company 
was originally fixed at §5,000,000, from which it 
was proposed to collect an assessment of four per 
cent, for the operations of 1854 as soon as SljOOO,- 
000 had been subscribed. Books for stock subscrip- 
tions were opened and the undertaking was fairly 
started. I felt confident that even a few colonies 
from the North would make the freedom of Kansas 
a necessity ; for the whole power of the free States 
would be ready to protect their sons in that Territory. 

I at once hired Chapman Hall in Boston, and be- 
gan to speak day and evening in favor of the enter- 
prise. I also addressed meetings elsewhere, and 
labored in every possible way to make converts to 
my theory. One day I met a party of clergymen 
in the study of Theodore Parker ; on the next an- 
other party in the study of Rev. Dr. Lothrop. I 
met merchants in their counting-rooms, and busi- 
ness men upon the streets, and urged their attend- 
ance at the Chapman Hall meetings. Thus, with 
the help of the Boston press, led by the Daily Ad- 
vertiser, there began to be some interest in the plan 
to save Kansas. 



NEW PLAN AND NEW ARGUMENTS. 81 

Not only was a new plan proposed, but it was 
advocated by new arguments, some points of which 
were as follows : 

The present crisis was to decide whether free- 
dom or slavery should rule our country for cen- 
turies to come. That slavery was a great national 
curse ; that it practically ruined one-half of the na- 
tion and greatly impeded the progress of the other 
half. That it was a curse to the negro, but a much 
greater curse to the white man. It made the slave- 
holders petty tyrants who had no correct idea of 
themselves or of anybody else. It made the poor 
whites of the South more abject and degraded than 
the slaves themselves. That it was an insurmount- 
able obstacle in the way of the nation's progress 
and prosperity. That it must be overcome and ex- 
tirpated. That the way to do this was to go to 
the prairies of Kansas and show the superiority of 
free labor civilization ; to go with all our free labor 
trophies : churches and schools, printing - presses, 
steam-engines, and mills ; and in a peaceful contest 
convince every poor man from the South of the 
superiority of free labor. That it was much better 
to go and do something for free labor than to stay 
at home and talk of manacles and auction-blocks 
and blood-hounds, while deploring the never-end- 
ing aggressions of slavery. That in this contest 
the South had not one element of success. We 
had much greater numbers, much greater wealth, 
greater readiness of organization, and better facil- 
ities of migration. That we should put a cordon 
of free States from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexi- 



82 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

CO, and stop the forming of slave States. After 
that we should colonize the northern border slave 
States and exterminate slavery. That our work 
was not to make women and children cry in anti- 
slavery conventions, by sentimental appeals, but to 

GO AND PUT AN END TO SLAVERY. 

The census of the United States was my text- 
book and the basis of my appeals. My themes 
were the commercial, industrial, and economic dis- 
advantages of slavery. These arguments were ef- 
fective with the ]S"orthern people. Such interests, in 
the Civil War, more than any pity for the African, 
impelled the West to fight for the outlet of the 
Mississippi Eiver. 

In elucidating this plan to save Kansas, Profess- 
or Spring, in his History, page 28, says : 

"Early in the summer of 1854 rumors that powerful capital- 
ized societies were forming in New England for the purpose of 
sending antislavery colonies to Kansas alarmed the people of 
western Missouri, and suggested doubts whether the repeal of 
the old restrictive Compromise legislation would eventually 
prove as fortunate for their interests as they dreamed. They 
had looked upon Kansas as an easy, inevitable prey, a likelihood 
almost universally conceded throughout the Northern States. 
'The fate of Kansas was sealed,' said the Liberator of July 13, 
1855, ' the very day the Missouri Compromise was repealed.' 

"In the midst of general despondency it occurred to Eli 
Thayer, of "Worcester, Massachusetts, that the public had mis- 
read the situation ; that apparent disasters were only successes 
disguised ; that the calamities befallen the antislavery cause in 
Congress might be retrieved by tactics of organized emigration 
— a contest in which the Southern oligarchy, much 'cumbered 
and heavily shod, could not cope with freedom in its nimbler 
movements. While the Congressional struggle was in progress, 
before the fate of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill had been settled, he 



THE WORK BEGUN. 33 

wrote out a Constitution for the * Massachusetts Emigrant Com- 
pany, ' and procured a legislative charter. Thayer originally con- 
templated a formidable corporation, with a capital of five million 
dollars, by which he expected to control migration — the vast 
Westering flux of natives as well as foreigners — in the interests 
of liberty; to marshal it against the encroachments of the South; 
to secure the Territories in the first place, and then turn his 
revolutionizing agencies upon the slave States themselves. . . . 

"Abolitionists repudiated expedients of colonization as 'false 
in principle,' and able to compass at best only 'a transplanted 
Massachusetts ' — a futile and unworthy consummation, since 
even * the original Massachusetts had been tried and found want- 



At the close of one of my meetings in Boston, a 
man in the rear of the hall arose and announced his 
intention of subscribing ten thousand dollars tow- 
ards the capital stock of the company. This was 
John M. S. Williams, of Cambridgeport, who was 
afterwards prominently connected with the Emi- 
grant Aid Company. Charles Francis Adams came 
forward with a subscription of twenty-five thousand 
dollars, and others followed. It was at one of the 
Chapman Hall meetings that I first saw Charles 
Eobinson (afterwards Governor of Kansas), and en- 
gaged him to act as agent of the Emigrant Aid 
Company. A wiser and more sagacious man for 
this work could not have been found within the 
borders of the nation. By nature and by training 
he was perfectly well equipped for the arduous 
work before him. A true democrat and a lover of 
the rights of man, he had risked his life in Califor- 
nia while defending the poor and weak against the 
cruel oppression of the rich and powerful. He was 
willing at any time, if there were need, to die for 



34 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

his principles. In addition to such brave devotion 
to his duty, he had the clearest foresight, and the 
coolest, calmest judgment in determining the course 
of action best adapted to secure the rights of the 
free State settlers. No one in Kansas Avas so much 
as he the man for the place and time. He was a 
deeper thinker than Atchison, and triumphed over 
the border ruffians and the more annoying and 
more dangerous self-seekers of his own party. The 
man who " paints the lily and gilds refined gold " 
is just the one to tell us how Charles Robinson 
might have been better qualified for his Kansas 
work. But his character, so clearly defined in 
freedom's greatest struggle, superior to the help 
or harm of criticism, reveals these salient points 
of excellence — majesty of mind and humility of 
heart, stern justice and tender sympathy, heroic 
will and sensitive conscience, masculine strength 
and maidenly modesty, leonine courage and wom- 
anly gentleness, with power to govern based on 
self-restraint, and love of freedom deeper than love 
of life. 

With such a man at the head of the free State 
cause in Kansas, it is not strange that I felt no un- 
easiness about its management. I never troubled 
him with letters of advice about Kansas matters, 
which he was in a position to understand so well. 
In the three years' conflict very few letters passed 
between us. He never knew where or when a let- 
ter would reach me, as I was speaking all the way 
from the Penobscot to the Schuylkill, and from the 
seaboard to the lakes. It was my mission to raise 



CHAELES ROBINSON AND WIFE. 35 

men and money for the security of freedom in the 
Territory, and to combine the Northern States in 
this work. I did not doubt Robinson's abihty or 
fidelity in the use of means. 

Fortunately for him and for our cause, his youth- 
ful wife was admirably qualified for her arduous 
and resjoonsible position. Mrs. Sara T. L. Robin- 
son was the daughter of Hon. Myron Lawrence, 
of Belchertown, Massachusetts, a prominent Whig 
leader, and an extreme hater of the disunion fanat- 
ics, whom he decorated with the name of " Bobo- 
litionists." 

Entirely devoted to the cause of freedom, Mrs. 
Robinson brought to her work a well-disciplined 
mind, high courage, and an unconquerable faith. 
She was an inspiration to all the women in the 
Territory, whom she influenced by her ardent 
words and her graceful though vigorous pen. Nor 
did her influence stop at the confines of the field 
of conflict between the two hostile civilizations, 
but extended throughout the free States. In 1856 
she published a most entertaining book, replete 
with charming pictures of the daily life of our 
brave pioneers, and of the thrilling incidents of that 
most exciting period. This had a wide circulation, 
and was a very efficient aid in our great work.* 
By such services in the pivotal conflict, the name 
of Robinson has become illustrious. 

* "Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life." Boston. Crosby, 
Nichols & Company. 1856. 



CHAPTER III. 

HORACE GREELEY AND " THE PLAN OF FREEDOM." 

All the work recorded in the last chapter had 
been done before the Kansas-ISTebraska Bill passed 
the Senate. A good number of the leading citi- 
zens of Boston had become earnest and hopeful 
supporters of the plan of the Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany. This was proof to me that by a judicious 
presentation of this plan in other places a sim- 
ilar co-operation could be secured. That such 
help should be obtained without delay was not 
only desirable, but absolutely necessary to our 
success. After careful thought upon the question, 
How is this work to be done? I determined to 
suspend my Chapman Hall meetings and go di- 
rectly to JS'ew York City, for the purpose of meet- 
ing some of the leading citizens there, and induc- 
ing them, if possible, to organize for the work of 
saving Kansas. Accordingly, I left Worcester on 
the evening of the 26th of May, and was ready 
in JSTew York City the next morning to enter 
upon the duties of my self-imposed mission. On 
this day I first became personally acquainted 
with Mr. Greeley. Before that time I had mere- 
ly seen him several times while on his lecturing 
tours, and had heard him once or twice. I had 



MR. GREELEY AT HOME. 37 

now come from Massachusetts on purpose to se- 
cure, if possible, the great influence of his name 
and of the New York Tribune in the new cru- 
sade of freedom, which, during the preceding 
three months, I had successfully begun in IN'ew 
England. 

As I had never been in ITew York before, the 
Tribune building was pointed out to me, in answer 
to my inquiries. I climbed the narrow, crooked, 
much -worn, and dusty, not to say dirty, flights 
from Spruce Street to Mr. Greeley's sanctum. 
There, in a very small room, containing two old- 
fashioned, straight-back chairs, and a very high and 
very ancient bureau, sat Mr. Greeley, using the lat- 
ter article for a writing-desk. The top of this bu- 
reau, except a very small space at one corner, was 
covered with papers, both manuscript and printed, 
in utter confusion. These had been pushed back so 
as to leave a clear space at one corner large enough 
to hold a sheet of paper. There was the sheet and 
Mr. Greeley, sitting very erect (as he was obliged 
to do to have his eyes above the paper), writing 
upon it. I at once introduced myself, and said, 
" Mr. Greeley, my mission to l^ew York is for the 
purpose of securing the great influence of your 
name and paper in the work of organizing emigra- 
tion from the free States to Kansas.'- Mr. Greeley 
replied : " I have seen some accounts in the papers 
of your movement, but I confess I know but little 
about it. I am glad to see you, and wish to know 
all about it, also your plans and purposes, and upon 
what reasons you base your hopes of success. 



38 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

I^ow, Mr. Thayer, sit down and talk. I must fin- 
ish this editorial under my hand, but do not mind 
my writing. I shall hear every word, and after 
this paper is completed I will give you my entire 
attention and shall make many inquiries." This 
method of listening to talk upon one subject while 
writing an editorial upon another and entirely dif- 
ferent one was quite a marvel to me, and at first 
not very inspiring. However, I proceeded to giv^e 
a full account of my last three months' work, and 
to show that while there was utter hopelessness in 
JS'ew England at the beginning of that time, there 
now began to be faith and hope, and that thirty-five 
thousand dollars had been pledged to the cause at 
my last meeting; that such men as Edward Everett 
Hale, Dr. Lyman Beecher, Hon. Charles Francis 
Adams, Rev. Edward Beecher, and many other dis- 
tinguished Boston men, had attended some of my 
meetings, and had expressed the belief that with 
sufficient energy we could achieve success in Kan- 
sas, and stop the making of slave States forever ; 
that the same plan applied equally well to the old 
slave States, and that slavery, thus circumscribed, 
and thereafter invaded in its old home by free la- 
bor, in a way perfectly in accordance witli the laws 
and the Constitution, would soon be obliged to yield 
to the superior power of freedom and become ex- 
tinct. In this way I proceeded for an hour (Mr. 
Greeley all the while busy with his pen), and re- 
counted the facts of our charter having been grant- 
ed and the company organized under it, of the 
plan of operations reported in full, and of the inter- 



MY TALK WITH HIM. 39 

est in the movement already manifested in Massa- 
chusetts. Mr. Greeley called for a boy to take 
the copy he had jast finished, and began to make 
inquiries concerning every point of the long his- 
tory I had just given while he was writing. To 
my perfect amazement, not one point in the hour's 
talk had escaped his attention. ]N"ot one man 
in a thousand, giving his undivided attention to 
my remarks, would have had so complete an un- 
derstanding and appreciation of all that had been 
said. 

" Now, Thayer," said Mr. Greeley, " the first ques- 
tion I wish to ask you is this : Why have you come 
to me ?" To this I replied : " My coming to you is 
no accident, but the result of careful thought and 
study. There are several reasons for it. First, be- 
cause you are a Whig. The two great parties in 
the North are the Whig and Democratic, and with- 
out their co-operation our enterprise must be a fail- 
ure. The Free-soil party is feeble in numbers and 
influence, and should it act in this matter without 
the aid of the two great national parties we could 
count on nothing but defeat. With its support 
alone there would be no contest whatever in Kan- 
sas, and the border ruffians of Missouri would have 
everything their own way. For this reason I have 
put among the corporators of the Emigrant Aid 
Company two leading Democrats of Massachusetts 
— Gen. James S. Whitney and Col. Isaac Davis. 
Among them also are several old conservative 
Whigs, but not one Garrison Abolitionist, for the 
reason that they oppose the movement and will try 



40 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

to defeat it in order to increase the disunion senti- 
ment in the North by the loss of Kansas. ]^o\v, if 
I can secure the leading Whig paper in the coun- 
try, all the other Whig papers in the E'orth will 
gladly foUow its lead. I wish now as speedily as 
possible to reach the Middle and Western States, 
and to secure their immediate organization into 
Kansas leagues and emigrant aid societies, and you 
know well enough what a power the Weekly Trib- 
une will be in this work. We cannot afford to 
lose time. The Missourians are on the border of 
Kansas, and it is necessary to our success that the 
entire North be aroused at once and put into active 
and hopeful work. Your paper can show the peo- 
ple that there is a chance to save Kansas, and if 
they are once convinced of this, our success is cer- 
tain. Nobody in the North, whether Whig or 
Democrat, desires the extension of slavery, and all 
are ready to circumscribe and annihilate it in any 
legal and constitutional way. I have now given 
you one reason. There is another. The people 
believe that Horace Greeley is an honest, far-seeing, 
and patriotic man. That name alone will be half 
a victory. You are the one man now needed. 
Should you, with the power of your great paper, 
oppose, or even dubiously approve, this grand 
movement, our cause would be lost and Kansas be 
doomed to chains and slavery. This is the crisis 
in our history, and right here it is to be determined 
whether this country shall be aU slave or all free. 
If we lose Kansas the political control of slavery 
is assured for an indefinite period. Now is the 



TALK CONTINUED. 41 

time for you to use the power God has given you 
to help as no other man can to save the country 
and the cause to whose interests you devote your 
life. I know your character and your history well 
enough to feel assured of your cordial and power- 
ful aid." 

Mr. Greeley said : " There is much truth in what 
you have said, but I think you over-estimate my 
power in the matter. But do you not think the 
entire Democratic party will oppose? It looks 
to me as if Douglas had sold Kansas for a presi- 
dential nomination. Will not the Democrats see 
that the goods are delivered according to con- 
tract?" 

To which I replied : " Perhaps a few of the North- 
ern Democratic papers will mildly oppose us, but 
they dare not do so violently. Democrats and 
Whigs alike have seen enough of the aggressive 
tendency of slavery. On this subject the rank and 
file of both parties are with us as surely as the fee- 
ble Free-soilers. You will find, as the contest pro- 
gresses, that the question will not be Whig or Dem- 
ocrat, but Kansas a free State or Kansas a slave 
State. On this question we shall have, practically, 
the entire JSTorthern people viiih us, without dis- 
tinction of party. The only exception will be the 
handful of Garrison Abolitionists, who say : ^ There 
is no issue but disunion. The JN'ebraska Bill and 
the Fugitive Slave Law are of no import to Aboli- 
tionists; we strike at the root of the matter.' 
Their purpose is to destroy the union, and they 
know very well that our plan does not tend tow- 



42 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

ards that result. We may therefore safely count 
on their opposition, which you well know would be 
far less harmful to us than their support." 

" ISTow," said Mr. Greeley, " have you any papers 
which I can read this evening, showing the history 
of this movement so far as it has gone ?" I then 
gave him the Act of Incorporation of the Emigrant 
Aid Company, the account of the first meeting of 
the corporators, my report at that meeting of the 
plan of operations, which was adopted, and the 
temporary organization of the company. Mr. Gree- 
ley then said : "It is time for me to leave, but I 
want you to come and lunch with me to-morrow 
(Sunday) at one o'clock, and I shaU be better able 
then, after reading these papers, to examine the 
whole matter, to make other inquiries, and to de- 
cide what to do." 

To this proposition I assented. The next day I 
met him as appointed, and after lunch went with 
him to his loft in the Tribune building. 

He said, when seated at the corner of his old bu- 
reau : " Excuse me a few minutes while I write a 
letter. This time I will not ask you to talk while 
I write. I am now so much interested in the emi- 
grant scheme that your talk will distract my atten- 
tion too much." I then took up a paper and waited 
for the completion of his work. But he did not 
finish it without interruption ; for while he was 
writing, a boy about fifteen years old came into 
the room, and standing behind Mr. Greeley's chair 
near the door, said, " Mr. Greeley, I have come to 
ask your advice." " Say on," without stopping his 



AN INTERRUPTION. 43 

pen or even glancing at the boy. " The only rela- 
tive I have here is my sister. I have been board in o; 
with her, and she let me have board so cheap that 
I could, earn money enough to pay her and have 
something left to buy my clothes. Now, I have 
quarrelled with my sister and am boarding at an- 
other place, where they charge me all I can earn 
for my board (not so good as I had at my sister's), 
and I have nothing left to pay for clothes. What 
shall I do ?" Mr. Greeley, without looking up or 
stopping his pen, asked, " Is your sister a married 
woman?" ^'Yes, sir." "Is she a respectable 
woman ?" " Certainly, sir." " Go straight to your 
sister and tell her that you are ashamed of your- 
self, and ask her forgiveness. If she Avill take you, 
go back and live with her ; and after this remem- 
ber that if your own sister is not your friend you 
will not be likely to find any friend in New York 
City." The boy left without another word. Mr. 
Greeley had not seen him and had not stopped 
writing. 

When the boy who had come to seek friendly 
counsel had departed, with the wise but imperative 
advice of the great philanthropist ringing in his 
ears, and Mr. Greeley had finished his letter, he 
turned to me and said, " I am now ready to ex- 
amine further the emigration scheme, and wish to 
ask you several questions." 

T. " First, Mr. Greeley, allow me to say a word 
about what has just occurred in this room, and 
about v/hat is now going on. A poor boy in dis- 
tress comes to you as his best friend and adviser. 



44 . THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Though a stranger, he seeks you alone, in a city of 
several hundred thousand people. This one fact is 
sufficient proof of your influence at home. To 
secure your great influence in the Northern States 
to help break the dominating power of slavery is 
the mission of a stranger from another State. 1 
can congratulate you upon this evidence of your 
power and upon the honor these applications do 
you. They are a higher compliment than I have 
ever before seen conferred upon any one. 'Now I 
am ready for any questions or any objections that 
occur to you." 

G. " What do you think should be done first ?" 

T. " The first thing to do is to unfold the plan 
and to advocate it in such a way as to inspire hope 
of success among the Northern peoj)le. As soon as 
they have any hope they will be ready for action. 
At present the North is utterly disheartened. For 
more than thirty years we have been invariably 
beaten in the halls of Congress. Nothing is more 
common than the expression ' Slavery has always 
had its own way and always will have it.' We 
now propose to move the scene of this contest 
from Congress to the prairies, where the system of 
free labor v/ill meet the system of slave labor face 
to face. If we can unite the North in this move- 
ment we are sure to triumph. We have the power, 
if we only use it, and we shall use it as soon as we 
have any faith in securing the freedom of Kansas." 

G. " What would you do next ?" 

T. " Advocate the forming of Kansas leagues and 
emigrant aid companies throughout the North. 



MR. GREELEY'S INQUIRIES. 45 

Begin to send colonies. Keport the starting and 
progress of every colony. Give them ovations, as 
they pass, at all the principal places on the route. 
Make the emigrants feel that they are sure to be 
sustained by the patriots at home. Create enthu- 
siasm where now there is only despondency. Our 
Boston company will put in capital, in advance of 
emigration, so that shelter and many other com- 
forts, heretofore unknown to pioneers, will be ready 
in Kansas for each new colony." 

G. "Here is the most important question of 
all : can you get men to go from the free States to 
Kansas, in view of the great sacrifices they will be 
obliged to make, risking property, peace, and even 
life itself, for a principle — I might say for patriot- 
ism? Kemember that the whole power of the 
Government is against you ; that Missouri, crowd- 
ed with border ruffians, is on the entire eastern 
border of Kansas, that your emigrants will have 
a very long journey before reaching Kansas, and 
more than three hundred miles of it in the slave 
State of Missouri. Can all these difficulties be 
overcome ?" 

T. " They can be and will be. We already 
have a number of men pledged for our first colony. 
The next one can be secured with far less effort. 
It is true that there has never been an emigration 
of this kind in the world's history — a self-sacrific- 
inci: emiOTation. It is now time for this new devel- 
opment, and, with proper effort, it can be made 
manifest and effective in saving Kansas and de- 
stroying slavery. The people of the North, without 



46 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

distinction of party, hate slavery and are ready to 
end it in any legal and constitutional way. They 
will respond to the call of principle and patriotism 
more and more readily as they see the movement 
progressing and a chance of success presented. On 
this matter I am confident, for I have made many 
speeches upon this subject, and the response of my 
hearers has been all I could desire. Our emigrants 
Avill not be intimidated by border rufiians, nor by 
all the powers of the Government, if used under 
the restrictions of the law and the Constitution, as 
they must be." 

G. ^' I am glad you have some proof already of 
what the people are willing to do, but will they 
not become discouraged in case the slave-holders 
resort to open violence and brutal outrage ? What 
if the border ruffians of Missouri should rush into 
Kansas, destroy your settlements, and murder or 
drive out your emigrants ?" 

T. "If the South gives us fair play we shall 
easily beat her in the game of emigration ; if she 
gives us foul play we shall beat her all the more 
cei'tainly, though the struggle may be longer and 
more severe. To-day she has incurred the bitter 
hostility of the united North by her bad faith ; 
should this hostility become furious rage, incited 
by abuse or murder of our peaceful colonies, no 
man in his senses can doubt the result. Slavery 
will go down and freedom will triumph. Demo- 
crats and Whigs will unite throughout the North, 
and nothing on the continent can then resist their 
power." 



DISCUSSION CONTINUED. 47 

G. "Will the Free -soil politicians take the 
stump and aid in raising the colonies ?" 

T. "I think not. They have said so many 
times that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
would make a slave State of Kansas, that they may 
be slow to believe the contrary result possible, and 
may feel little inclined to contradict their many- 
times - repeated prophecies. Besides, they would 
not feel confident of inspiring any hope of success 
after such a record. For these reasons I do not 
expect the aid of the politicians. There is another 
reason also. They have been accustomed to re- 
gard the action of Congress as the only thing de- 
cisive about slavery in the Territories. The action 
we propose is entirely independent of Congress. If 
we can put into Kansas a strong majority of free 
State men and keep them there, Kansas will be a 
free State whatever Congress may do or fail to do. 
The same reasoning will apply to the other depart- 
ments of the Government." 

G. " I think I have a very good understanding 
of your views upon the whole matter. I have 
given it much thought, and I have full faith in it. 
I shall call it the Plan of Freedom, and advocate it 
to the best of my ability. To-morrow's Tribune 
will give some proof of this." 

T. " Mr. Greeley, you are entitled to the thanks 
of every patriot for your decision. With deter- 
mined effort on our part, and with your help in 
arousing and uniting the ISTorthern people in this 
great Avork, I feel that the freedom of Kansas is 
assured. I shall return to Massachusetts in high 



48 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

hope, and in the month of July the Tribune will 
record the passage through the State of New York 
of the pioneer Kansas colony." 

After the foregoing conversation, now briefly re- 
ported, I remained several days in New York, and 
addressed three meetings of influential citizens call- 
ed together by Avritten invitations ; one in the par- 
lors of the Astor House, one in the chapel of Colum- 
bia College, and another in the lecture-room of the 
Tabernacle. I also began the formation of an Emi- 
grant Aid Company and the New York State Kan- 
sas League. I saw Mr. Greeley often, and in each 
issue of the Tribune during my stay he made such 
appeals for "The Plan of Freedom" as only he 
could write. These appeals were quoted very wide- 
ly, and the entire "Whig press of the Northern States 
at once enlisted in the enterprise with great in- 
tensity of zeal, inspired by the high hope, sublime 
faith, and eloquent arguments of Horace Greeley. 
Kansas Leagues began at once to be formed in the 
Middle and Western States ; and as the great strug- 
gle progressed in Kansas many of the rank and file 
of the two great political parties in the free States 
drew nearer and nearer together, until they finally 
met and were consolidated in the Republican party. 
This party, deriving its life and strength from the 
Kansas contest, came near electing Fremont in 1856, 
and did elect Lincoln in 1860. Below are some 
extracts from Mr. Greeley's editorials above re- 
ferred to. 

The New York Tribune of May 29, 1854, con- 
tained a long account of the organization and 



MR. GREELEY SUPPORTS MY VIEWS. 49 

purpose of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany, with the charter and report of the commit- 
tee printed in full. The following is an extract 
from Mr. Greeley's editorial comment : 

" Such, in brief, is tlie plan offered to the earnest and pliilan- 
thropic men of tlie free States who desire to prevent the spread 
of slavery into Kansas and Nebraska, and to secure the early ad- 
mission of those Territories into the Union as free States. To 
all those who are anxious to do something in the present crisis 
to repair the wrong just committed at AVashington, it offers a 
wide and hopeful tield of effort. Here is abundant opportunity 
for all who have money to invest or a heart to labor in the great 
cause of freedom. The scheme strikes us as singularly well 
adapted to secure the objects in view. Properly managed, and 
in the hands of discreet and responsible men, it cannot fail to ac- 
complish the noble and generous purpose at which it aims, and 
at the same time it promises to eventually return to every con- 
tributor all of his original outlay, with a handsome recompense 
for its use. From this plan, thus briefly shadowed forth, we en- 
tertain a confident hope of the most satisfactory results, and cord- 
ially commend it to public attention. 

"It will be seen that a meeting of the stockholders is to be 
held on the first Wednesday of June in Boston. Meanwhile, 
subscriptions can be made, by those who desire to do so, at the 
ofiice of this paper, either by letter or in person. The co-opera- 
tion of the friends of the enterprise in this city is earnestly de- 
sired, and a gentleman from Massachusetts is now here for the 
purpose of obtaiuing it." 

This was followed by a series of powerful edito- 
rials, which fully unfolded the new Plan of Free- 
dom, as Mr. Greeley called it, and set forth its 
merits in a forcible and convincing manner, urging 
the formation of emigrant societies throughout the 
North. 

In the Tribune of May 30th he said : 
3 



50 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

"The Plan of Freedom set forth in 5'esterday's Tribune has 
been eagerly seized upon by some of our best and most distin- 
guished citizens, and a private preliminary meeting \vill be im 
mediately held in furtherance of its suggestions. . . . 

" The organization of a powerful association of large capital 
in the aid of human freedom is a step in a new direction of phil- 
anthropic effort, which may w^ell enlist the sympathies of the 
unselfish and benevolent not only of this country but of all 
mankind. 

" In view of the monstrous wrongs that slavery is at this hour 
meditating, in view of the enormity it has just perpetrated, the 
heart of every man who has one spark of humanity in his bosom 
must be stirred, as with the sound of a trumpet, by the suggest- 
ion of a remedy so simple, so comprehensive, and so practical. . . . 

' ' The great labors of the world have been performed by associ- 
ation. Our societies for the spread of the Bible and the diffusion 
of Christianity, and our other varied combinations for benevo- 
lent objects, all demonstrate the immense power of well-direct- 
ed associative effort." 

From the Tribune of May 31, 1854: 

"The Plan of Freedom, which we put forth in Monday's pa- 
per, already awakens an echo in the public mind. In addition 
to further active steps of the gentlemen in the city who have 
taken hold of the subject, we have received voluntary offers of 
subscription by letter, together with the most fervent expressions 
of zeal and determination from all quarters to rally in defence of 
freedom, and in opposition to the gigantic schemes of aggression 
started by the Slave Power. The contest already takes the form 
of the people against tyranny aud slavery. The whole crowd of 
slave-drivers and traitors, backed by a party organization, a cor- 
rupt majority in Congress, a soulless partisan press, and admin- 
istration with its paid officers armed with revolvers and sustained 
by the bayonets of a mercenary soldiery, will all together prove 
totally insufficient to cope with an aroused people. 

' ' We extract from our correspondence as follows : 

'"To the Editor of the New York Tribune : 

" ' Having watched with much interest the incipient move- 
ments in Massachusetts to form the Emigrant Aid Society, aud 



LETTERS TO MU. GREELEY. 51 

having great faith in such an enterprise, if confided to proper 
hands, I am much gratified to find by your paper of this day that 
the organization is so far completed as to admit the opening of 
subscriptions. Wishing to aid the enterprise out of my feeble 
ability, I request you to insert my name in the subscription for 
five hundred dollars (^500). . . . 

" ' The day of deliverance dawns. The spirit of freedom shall 
awake. Yours for Liberty.' 

"Another correspondent, who sends a subscription for $10,000, 
writes as follows: 

" 'Need I say how delighted I am at the prospect of the "Plan 
of Freedom?" In a work so hopeful, so just, so grandly compre- 
hensive, so prophetic of results potential, victorious, and final, I 
enter with a full soul, heart, hand, and purse; and sink or swim, 
live or die, survive or perish, I give myself to this great work, in 
the full confidence that souls are here enlisted who know no tie 
but that of universal brotherhood, no end but that of unselfish 
devotion to common humanity. May I ask of you the favor to 
hand in my subscription for one hundred shares of stock of the 
Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company? The golden age — the 
blessed age of peace — is not for us! Patience and faith, and com- 
bat, labor, and toil, are ours. Let us accept the gifts meekly but 
manfully, rejoicing that our Master counts us worthy to follow 
him in the niighty travail of a world's regeneration.' " 

From the New York Tribune of June 1, 1854 : 

"The Plan of Fkeedom. — The friends of this measure who 
have had the subject in hand held a meeting at the Astor House 
last evening, at which President King, of Columbia College, pre- 
sided. There w^as quite a full attendance of gentlemen, who felt 
a deep interest in the subject. A committee was appointed to 
superintend the business of obtaining subscriptions, and to rep- 
resent the subscribers in the meeting of the society to be held in 
Boston on Wednesday next. . . . 

" We are in receipt of additional letters, making inquiries and 
tendering further subscription. The plan is received by all with 
pre-eminent favor, and enlists the warmest sympathies of the 
friends of freedom. . . . The plan is no less than to found free 
cities and to extemporize free States. Let it be made the great 
enterprise of the age." 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE WORK BEGUN. CHARITY VS. BUSINESS IN MIS- 
SIONARY ENTERPRISE. 

Having now secured the invaluable aid of Mr. 
Greeley, and additional subscriptions to the stock 
of the company, so that the Avhole amount pledged 
was more than one hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
lars, I returned to Boston. While I had been away 
some one had raised a danger-signal where there 
was no danger. Some one had decided that under 
our charter there possibly might be individual lia- 
bility of the stockholders. There was no reason for 
this apprehension, as was afterwards admitted by 
the veiy persons who used the argument, and who 
but a year later very much deplored their action. 
But there was no time then to argue the question, 
for we were ready to use funds, and they must be 
had without delay, as the first colony was nearly 
ready to begin its journey to Kansas. So it was 
arranged that the business of the company should, 
be put into the hands of three trustees until the 
next meeting of the Legislature, when a new char- 
ter, adapted to the views of the Boston subscribers, 
could be obtained. 

The following, from Professor Spring's "Kan- 
sas," page 30, gives this history as follows : 



PROFESSOR SPRING'S VIEWS. 53 

"No organization was ever effected under the first charter. 
It saddled objectionable monetary liabilities upon the individ- 
uals who might associate under it, and was abandoned. The 
whole business then passed into the hands of Thayer, Lawrence, 
and J. M. S. Williams, who were constituted trustees, and man- 
aged affairs in a half-personal fashion until February, 1855, when 
a second charter was obtained and an association formed with a 
slightly rephrased title—' The New England Emigrant xVid Com- 
pany ' — and with John Carter Brown, of Providence, Rhode Isl- 
and, as president. In the conduct of the company, the trustees, 
Avho bridged the interval between the first and second charters, 
continued to be a chief directive and inspirational force. Mr. 
Thayer preached the gospel of organized emigration with tire- 
less and successful enthusiasm, while Mr. Lawrence discharged 
the burdensome but all-important duties of treasurer. Among 
the twenty original directors were Dr. Samuel Cabot, Jr., John 
Lowell, and AYilliam B. Spooner, of Boston ; J. P. Williston, 
Northampton; Charles II. Bigelow, Lawrence; and Nathan Dur- 
fee, Fall River. The list of directors was subsequently enlarged 
to thirty-eight, and included the additional names of Dr. S. G. 
Howe, Rev. Edward Everett Hale, Boston; George L. Stearns, 
Medford; Horace Bushuell, Hartford, Connecticut; Prof. Benja- 
min Silliman, Sr., New Haven, Connecticut; and Moses II. Grin- 
nell. New York. The company in its reorganized shape receded, 
at least temporarily, from all wholesale projects, and devoted it- 
self to the problem of planting free-labor towns in Kansas."* 

* The following is a full list of officers of the New England 
Emigrant Aid Company: 

President: John Carter Brown, Providence ; Vice-Presidents: 
Eli Tha3^er, Worcester, J, M. S.Williams, Cambridge; Treasurer : 
Amos A. Lawrence, Boston ; Secretary : Thomas H. Webb, Bos- 
ton ; Directors: William B. Spooner, Samuel Cabot, Jr., John 
Lowell, C. J. Iligginson, Le Baron Russell, Boston, William J. 
Rotch, New Bedford, J. P. Williston, Northampton, W. Dudley 
Pickman, Salem, R. P. Waters, Beverly, Reuben A. Chapman, 
Springfield, John Nesmith, Lowell, Charles PI. Bigelow, Lawrence, 
Nathan Durfee, Fall River, William Willis, Portland, Me., Frank- 
lin Muzzy, Bangor, Me., Ichabod Goodwin, Portsmouth, N. H., 
Thomas M. Edwards, Keene, N. II., Albert Day, Hartford, Conn. 



54 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Bryant and Gay's "History of the United States," 
vol. iv., p. 408, has the following : 

"In the Eastern States, Eli Thayer conceived the organization 
of emigration, with a view of directing it to Kansas. On the 20th 
of April, before the Nebraska Act passed Congress, he and his 
friends were incorporated as the IMassachusetts Emigrant Aid 
Company. They were permitted to hold a capital of five mill- 
ion dollars. A ready exaggeration, made in a hostile interest, 
announced that they had this capital. In fact, that company 
had not collected twenty thousand dollars when the year closed. 
But the fame of its wealth answered the purpose as well as 
the possession. Undecided men were willing to throw in their 
chances where an organization supposed to be so strong led the 
way. The glove thrown down too hastily in a challenge to the 
Northern emigrant was taken iij) on the instant. In the last 
days of July, as soon as the Territory was open to settlement, 
the pioneer party of the Emigrant Aid Company took up claims 
at a point now known as Lawrence. Before winter, this com- 
pany had sent from New England five hundred emigrants. From 
other free States had poured in enough more to make a popula- 
tion of eight thousand." 

It is true, as Mr. Bryant says, that the books of 
our Boston company, at the close of the year 
1854, contained the names of only five hundred 
emigrants. But these colonies received accessions 
all the way from Boston to Kansas, so that often 
their numbers were more than doubled — sometimes 
quadrupled. 

The office of the company was in Boston. IsTear- 
ly all the country relied upon to furnish emigrants 
lies between Boston and Kansas. The emigrants 
from Maine, from eastern Massachusetts, and from 
the southern part of ]^ew Hampshire were, for the 
most part, registered in the Boston office, and 



WORK OF THE BOSTON COMPANY. S5 

made into colonies there. These, all told, were 
a very small portion of the number that went 
through the influence of this company. Hundreds 
of Kansas leagues and Kansas committees were 
formed, through the assistance and example of the 
parent organization, in all the JSTorthern States. 
I lately opened a file of the New York Tribune 
for 1851. In the issue of July 4th I find an account 
of a Kansas emigration society, of which Cadwal- 
lader Wallace was president, organized in- Eoss 
County, Ohio, and in the issue of July 10th I find 
an account of our own Worcester County organiza- 
tion, of which Alexander H. Bullock AYas president, 
William T. Merrifield vice-president, and Henry 
Cliapin, William A. Wheeler, Charles Thurber, 
Horace James, and Oliver C. Fenton were directors. 
Thus, at home, within forty-four miles of Boston, 
it was thought best to have a fully equipped com- 
pany ready for action. 

In New Haven, Conn., the famous Charles B. 
Lines Colony was formed, consisting of seventy- 
nine well-armed men. I went to that city three 
times, made three addresses there (two of them in 
Eev. Dr. Bacon's church), and had several con- 
ferences with President Woolsey, Dr. Bacon, Pro- 
fessor Silliman, Professor Twining, and others, in 
which I urged the forming of this colony. From 
hundreds of other places colonies, parties, and 
individuals went to Kansas through the influence 
of the E'ew England Emigrant Aid Company, 
whose names were never recorded in the Boston 
books, and who never visited our office. What 



56 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

influences gave the company such far-reaching 
power ? 

First. The press had advertised far and near 
that the Emigrant Aid Company were ready to use 
all the money needed in building towns in Kansas ; 
that they were sending out steam-engines, saw- 
mills, grist-mills, and other machinery ; that they 
w^ere building hotels and boarding-houses; that 
they were establishing newspapers, churches, and 
schools. From these facts emigrants inferred read- 
ily enough that in these incipient cities, with or- 
ganized emigration flowing in rapidly, there would 
be an excellent prospect for making money by 
the rise of property. The press also reported the 
ovations which each colony received all the way 
from Boston to Chicago, the cheers and the god- 
speeds awaiting them at every principal railroad- 
station, in the grand crusade for freedom. 

Second. Best of all, and most powerful in secur- 
ing emigrants for Kansas, was the argument of 
patriotism. Kansas was to be secured to freedom. 
Where, but a little while before, the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise had extinguished all hope 
and left only despair, faith and hope revived, and 
the glorious freedom-loving processions moved on. 
In every town and hamlet, from Maine to the Mis- 
sissippi Kiver, the Boston company's work was 
discussed and applauded. 

Another important point in estimating the work 
of these Kansas societies, leagues, and committees 
is that they sent out " men only," with very rare 
exceptions. In the enumeration of the people of the 



ONLY MEN. 57 

Territory, at the end of 1854, the entire number was 
a little more than eight thousand. More than half 
the voters in that eight thousand went to Kansas 
directly or indirectly through the influence of the 
Emigrant Aid Company. When the Missourians 
moved into Kansas to settle, they took their fam- 
ilies with them. Hence, it would tal^e at least 
five Missourians in the enumeration to equal at 
the polls one of our Eastern or Northern emi- 
grants, who left their families at home until they 
could provide for them in the Territory. The C. 
B. Lines Colony of seventy-nine able-bodied men 
were equal at the polls to three hundred and 
ninety-five Missourians in the enumeration of all 
the people. 

The books of the Boston company show the names 
of about three thousand emigrants in all. It is safe 
to say that these numbers were doubled before 
they reached Kansas. If we consider that these 
were almost all men, w^ho left their families at home 
for one or two years, and that each one represent- 
ed five in the Territorial enumeration, we get 
an aggregate of over thirty thousand from this 
company during the three years of the crusade. 
But many of the accessions were furnished by 
Kansas leagues along the route from Boston to 
Kansas. There were many leagues, however, in 
Pennsylvania, 'New Jersey, southern New York, 
southern Ohio, and Indiana, which sent their emi- 
grants by a nearer route than that used by the 
Boston company. They were all, however, act- 
ing in concert, since they were all loyal to the 
3* 



58 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Plan of Freedom, and bad a common origin and 
common purpose. 

In the New York Tribune of August 30, 1856, 
there is an account of one of our colonies which 
left Boston numbering less than one hundred, 
but increased by accessions along the route un- 
til, in Iowa, near their destination, they numbered 
three hundred and eighty-four. From numerous 
instances of this kind, it will be seen that the 
power of the Boston company in this conflict 
should not be measured by the number of emi- 
grants recorded in their books. 

The charter of the company having been aban- 
doned, and the plan of trustees for the ensuing 
year substituted, we immediately began the col- 
lection of money for immediate use. It was de- 
cided that a capital of $200,000 would be suffi- 
cient for the Kansas work. In fact, the com- 
pany did not use in aU over $11:0,000, and this 
small sum was contributed during three years, 
mainly as a charity, and without hope of returns. 
My original plan was, as we have seen, to form a 
business company, to be conducted upon business 
principles, able to make good dividends to its 
stockholders annually, and at its close, a full re- 
turn of all the money originally invested. To 
have done this would have required no marvellous 
financial skill. We should have had the power 
to build cities and towns wherever we might 
choose to locate them, and could invest money in 
western Missouri land as well as in Kansas. 
Twelve acres of land, now in the very centre of 



THE CHARITY PLAN. 59 

Kansas City, were offered to us for S3000. The 
same tract is now worth several milhoiis. I 
urged the purchase of this and of other land in 
that place, but my associates opposed my views, 
and the purchases were not made. The main ob- 
jection of my associates to my original plan of a 
money-making company, was a fear that people 
might say that we were influenced by pecuniary 
considerations in our patriotic work for Kansas. 
Therefore, they did not desire any return for any 
money invested. So we went on the charity plan, 
and were never one-half so efficient as we would 
have been by the other method, and were fully 
twice as long in determining the destiny of 
Kansas. 

It was my purpose, when I wrote that charter, 
to be done with Kansas in 1855, and then, with- 
out loss of time, and with increased capital, to 
have bought up large tracts of worn-out lands 
in Virginia. Of these it w^as my purpose to give 
one-half, in forty-acre lots, to our immigrants 
from the free States. The remaining half would 
be worth not less than four times the whole 
cost, as soon as the immigrants had occupied 
their homesteads. Two years of such work, by 
such a company, in Virginia, would have made 
her as secure for the Union in 1861 as Massachu- 
setts was. 

I had not then, and have not now, the slight- 
est respect for that pride in charity which ex- 
cludes from great philanthropic enterprises the 
strength and the effectiveness of money-making. 



60 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

There are supporters of missionary societies who 
make from the traific in ardent spirits the money 
they contribute, who would doubtless oppose the 
plan of making such societies self-sustaining by 
sharing in the property which they create. Why 
is it worse for a company to make money by ex- 
tending Christianity than by making cotton cloth ? 
More than thirty years ago I spoke before several 
missionary meetings, urging the adoption of this 
plan of self-supporting missions. At that time 
there were loo many objectors in authority who 
did not think it wise to "lower the Christian 
standard " so much as to reap a profit from Chris- 
tian work to insure further Christian progress. 
But Bishop Taylor has recently been using this 
method in Africa with much success. This is now 
the exception ; at a later day it will become the 
rule.^^ 

The truth is, that the highest civilization is the 
greatest creator of wealth. She is the modern 
Midas, with power to turn everything she touches 
into gold. Properly equipped, and with proper 
direction, she will conquer and supplant any in- 
ferior condition of men. This she will do without 
your money or mine, but with her own. Even a 
small share in the wealth Avhich she creates will 
speedily carry her round the world in strength and 
majesty. Then she will move as a queen. Kow 



*The views of the author in favor of self-supporting mis- 
sionary societies were fully presented in The New Eiiglaiider, 
in 1858, vol. xvi., p. 847. 



BUSINESS BETTER THAN CHARITY. 61 

she limps like a beggar on crutches, waiting for 
pennies, nickels, and dimes, extorted by pitiful ap- 
peals. To such humiliation is she subjected by 
the ignorance of her devotees, and by their false 
notions of charity. Even her servants, who- scorn 
to "mingle the spiritual with the worldly," have 
need of food and clothing and shelter. These 
they secure by contributions. If their mistress had 
but a fraction of the wealth whicii she creates, she 
could feed and clothe and shelter them all, as a re- 
ward for their services, and thus raise them far 
above the need of charitable contributions. 

Now, if we apply the above reasoning to an 
organized, peaceful competition of free labor with 
slave labor in the former slave States, it will be 
readily seen with what certainty freedom would 
have been sustained. The Constitution of the 
United States, so fiercely denounced by the Garri- 
son disunionists as " a league with death and a cov- 
enant with hell," gave Freedom the power, Avhen- 
ever she chose to use it, to extinguish slavery. 

In the provision that " the citizens of each State 
shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities 
of citizens in the several States," there was laid 
(though perhaps without that design) the corner- 
stone for freedom in all the States. Now, if it was 
true, as the census proved, and as all the people of 
the free States maintained and believed, that our 
civihzation was superior to that of the slave States, 
then we Avere at liberty at any time to go into the 
inferior States and establish free labor there. We 
were not only at liberty to do this, but we had a 



62 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

very great inducement to do it. Suppose that an 
organization under a charter like the one first 
granted to the Emigrant Aid Company, with a cap- 
ital of $5,000,000, had begun in earnest to colonize 
Virginia with emigrants from the ^N^orth, and had 
secured large tracts of land at the slave-State prices 
of $2, or even $3, per acre, whereon to locate the 
free -State settlers, these same lands would have 
been doubled, trebled, or quadrupled in value as 
soon as they were thus occupied. There was really 
no limit to the profit ready for an energetic and 
able company, in thus changing slave States to 
free. In fact, such a company could well have 
afforded to pay for all the slaves in the States so 
redeemed. But this they would not have been ex- 
pected to do, and would not have done. In a few 
years, however, they could have driven all the 
slave-holders to the shores of the Mexican Gulf. 



CHAPTER y. 

DIFFICULTIES AND DISCOUEAGEMENTS. THE FOUND- 
ING OF LAWRENCE. 

Having now accepted the charity plan, since 
there was no time to be wasted in arguing for the 
original and better one, I immediately returned to 
the work of completing our first colony, which had 
been suspended during my absence in 'New York 
City. The difficulty which attended my efforts can 
be inferred from the fact that I made not far from 
fifty speeches to secure the little colony of twenty- 
nine men. There was very little faith in our en- 
terprise up to this point. The friends of the young 
men w^ho had engaged to go were generally very 
despondent, and often said that the scheme would 
result only in failure, and a great if not a fatal loss 
to those who were so daring as to enlist in it. 
Slavery had the prestige of such continuous and 
prolonged success that even the most ardent of 
an ti slavery men scarcely dared to hope for any 
favorable result against such odds. The Southern 
papers, too, were full of their arrogant boasting 
and threats, which served to intimidate the less 
daring of our emigrants. All this, however, was 
eventually of great service to our cause, since it 
eliminated, from the beginning, certain cowardly 
elements which it was far from desirable to retain. 



64 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Even some JN^orthern journals were ready to ex- 
press confidence in the success of the slave power 
in Kansas. Such papers, however, were very few. 

Here is an editorial from the Lynchhurg (Ya.) 7?^- 
puUican of July 1, 1854, not only expressing the 
greatest confidence in the success of slavery in 
Kansas, but also attempting to intimidate our emi- 
grants by threats of abuse and outrage after reach- 
ing their destination : 

"The Worcester Spy announces that the first band of emigrants 
for Kansas under the charge of the Emigrant Aid Company will 
start from Boston on the 17th inst. We wish them the utmost 
success their hearts can desire in getting there, for the hardy 
pioneers of Kansas will doubtless have tar and feathers prepared 
in abundance for their reception. Kansas is open for settlement 
both to the North and the South. Slavery has been kept out of 
Territories by Congressional enactments, but has never failed to 
carry the day and firmly establish itself upon new Territories 
wben allowed to enter." 

Another similar specimen is the following edito- 
rial in the Kansas Pioneer^ a newspaper which fre- 
quently derided our emigrants as " the hired paupers 
of EU Thayer & Co." : 

"We want to see a pro-slavery Legislature to a man, or at 
least a large majority of the friends of Southern institutions rep- 
resent our interests in the halls of legislation. We want to be 
governed by sound laws, and pro-slavery men only are compe- 
tent to make such laws. Under their banner we have always 
done battle, and under their guardianship we shall ever be found 
battling. We have no sympathy for Abolitionists, and the sooner 
they are made to believe that the squatters of Kansas Territory 
have no sympathy for their black, nefarious, contemptible dog- 
mas the better. We want no negro-sympathizing thieves among 
us; they will be running off our slaves whenever a chance offers. 



SOUTHERN THREATS. 65 

Their hearts are as black as the darkest deeds of hell. Away 
with them ; send them back where they belong. Up with the 
banner and shout of slavery, now and forever, in our land. . . . 
Down with every Abolition barrier that dare impede our way!" 

It would be easy to fill a volume with the edito- 
rials of Southern journals in 1854, denouncing the 
Emigrant Aid Company, and attempting by threats 
of bowie-knives, revolvers, tar and feathers, hemp, 
and grape-vines, to intimidate and discourage the 
emigrants to Kansas from the I^Iorthern States. 
While these efforts were, no doubt, powerful in de- 
terring the more timid and irresolute of our intend- 
ed colonists from joining in the great crusade, they 
served to stimulate the more daring, and to inten- 
sify their determination to assert and maintain 
their rights. Thousands of our young men looked 
upon such threats as great inducements to take an 
active part and have a personal interest in the new 
migration. 

As a fit description of the pioneer Kansas colony 
which founded Lawrence, and prepared the way for 
numerous emigrants who followed them, either sin- 
gly or in companies, I insert the following editorial 
from the Christian Eegister of July 22, 1854 : 

"The first pioneer company of New England men bound for 
Kansas left last Monday. They were twenty-nine in number, 
bound on such enterprises as will facilitate the settlement of 
those who are to follow, and reduce to a minimum the exposure 
of frontier life. So soon as the season permits, and the country 
is legally open for settlers, large numbers will pour in. The best 
results of our farms, of our colleges, of our workshops, and of 
our professional schools— of early enterprise in distant countries 
and of careful study of the rights of men— were brought together 



66 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

in that little company. The pioneer body was one of the best 
representations possible of New England character. From what 
we see and know of them, we should not be sorry to see them 
matched against any twenty-nine they may meet in their travels." 

The above description is truthful and just, with- 
in certain limits, but it does not exhibit the moral 
excellence and the devotion to principle of the pio- 
neer Kansas colony. This was the beginning of a 
self-sacrificing emigration such as the world's his- 
tory had never before shown. 

A writer in the Christian Examiner for July, 
1855, concludes an exhaustive article upon the not- 
able migrations of history by awarding the high- 
est honor to the Kansas pioneers, as follows : 

"Looking back upon the champions of civil and religious lib- 
erty, upon the philanthropists of other times, and all the 'goodly 
array of martyrs,' we see those who to their own age were a 
mere nebula of erratic spirits, shapeless and unsymmetrical, re- 
solved under our distant telescopic view into stars of the first 
magnitude. We see the light which they originated or reflected, 
and the multitudes of weary, wandering mortals who have been 
guided to certainty and peace by the aid of their far-penetrating 
rays, but we do not see, and we do not want to see, the coarse 
and very earth-like materials of which they were, after all, com- 
posed. The great movements of the past are revealed to us, in 
all their massive grandeur, by the light of their results. The 
changes going on in our own time, and conducted by ordinary 
mortals on our own level, are colored by the involuntary preju- 
dices which intimacy and detail excite, and are examined b}^ the 
varying light of our own interests and passions. Candor isscarce- 
ly possible under the circumstances, even if the future is appre- 
hended in the present. 

"To some there seems little in this age which posterity shall 
call heroic, or the memory of which they shall love to cherish; 
yet there is a movement now in progress which we believe is des- 
tined to stand recorded in future ages as second to none in the 



HEROES OF THE CRUSADE. 67 

purity and nobleness of its object, or in the vast results to hu- 
manity involved in its ultimate success. Goths, Celts, and Anglo- 
Americans have been impelled to distant migrations by the hope 
of spoils ; religious propagandists by force and fraud have 
changed old lands for new; and the slaves of taskmasters and 
the victims of conscience-binders have alike fled for refuge to 
the wilderness, some for physical, some for spiritual compensa- 
tion. But it was reserved to the present age and to the present 
period to afford the sublimer spectacle of an extensive migration 
in mndicatioii of a 'principle; a principle which is to benefit not 
the emigrants but others, and those others of a degraded race and 
of a different color. 

" The future will not have to record of the emigrants to Kan- 
sas that they were forced out of their old homes by dissensions, 
oppressions, or even such incompatibility of sentiment with the 
communities they left as made their position uncomfortable to 
themselves or others. Neither the blight of famine nor an over- 
crowded population darkened their prospects in the home of 
their fathers. Neither pressure from without, nor the beckon- 
ings of ambition, nor the monitions of avarice, control the great 
Kansas migration. Not for themselves or for those identified 
with their interests, not even for their peers or ancient allies, 
to whom association and mutual remembrances have attached 
them— no, none of all these things move them. The great motor- 
power is the love of freedom, and its special impetus the sympa- 
thy of a superior race (certainly as far as condition is concerned) 
with an inferior, and for a people who can neither appreciate 
nor repay the sacrifice. In the unselfishness of the object lies 
its claim to the highest regard, and its right to the highest place 
in the history of migrations. 

" The genuineness of the movement is evidenced by the entire 
absence of coercive circumstances, such as have aided other mi- 
grations, in which the love of freedom was a principal ingredi- 
ent. And in this unselfishness the Kansas migration is repre- 
sentative of the age. Not that selfishness is dead, or disinterested 
benevolence a universal or even a very extended basis of action; 
but the philanthropy of the present has far more of this charac- 
ter than had that of any former age. . . . 

"The Kansas migration is the boldest exponent of this en- 
lightened philanthropy. It meets a gaunt and dismal fact by 



68 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

creating a more vital and self-perpetuating fact. The spirit of 
freedom which it embodies is no longer content to meet a usur- 
pation with a 'resolution,' but goes out in its strength to unseat 
the intruder. In the appropriateness of the means is the earnest 
of victory. 

"l^or may the participators in enterprises such as this be just- 
ly depreciated by the suspicion of mixed motives. Few indeed 
are the actions of men which result from an isolated impulse, 
opinion, or thought; complexity of motive is almost inseparable 
from human action; nor is it always easy to define with precis- 
ion the exact weight attaclied to each motive. But In judging 
of these great movements which affect humanity, and in decid- 
ing on the just meed of praise due to the participators, it is suffi- 
cient to know that had the greatest and best motive been absent, 
their co-operation would have been wanting; that whatever col- 
lateral influences were brought to bear on them, the great central 
idea was paramount, without which all others would have proved 
ineffectual. Will not after -ages, then, decide that the Kansas 
migration was purer and more unselfish, even, than that which 
found its haven at Plymouth Rock? The old homes of Old 
England were abandoned in obedience to the mandates of con- 
science; the old homes of New England are deserted in vindica- 
tion of the Christ-like principle of universal love. The pioneer 
band who have planted their standard in the centre of the con- 
federacy that they may redeem a continent to freedom shall 
never find their laurels paling, even beside the glory crowns of 
those who first planted free institutions on its eastern slope." 

The country has properly, on all occasions and 
in every way, conceded high honor to the brave 
men who enlisted in the war for the Union ; but 
the Kansas emigrants, who volunteered to become 
a barrier against the extension of slavery, enlisted 
in an enterprise which at the time seemed more 
hazardous than the war against secession. The 
soldier had food, clothing, arms, transportation, 
shelter, pay, and care in sickness provided by the 



SUPERIOR TO PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS. 69 

Government. These emigrants provided all these 
necessaries for themselves, at their own expense. 
It seems marvellous even now that men could be 
found so patriotic and resolute as to risk every- 
thing for the cause of freedom. The public has 
never yet done justice to these noblest specimens 
of the human race. Mr. "VVhittier, in his "Emi- 
grants' Song," says : 

"We cross the prairies as of old 
Our fathers crossed the sea ; 
To make the West, as they the East, 
The homestead of the free." 

But there is a wide difference between these Kan- 
sas emigrants and the Plymouth pilgrims. The 
latter fled from oppression, and sought in the new 
world ''freedom to worship God." The former mi- 
grated to meet, to resist, and to destroy oppression, 
in vindication of their principles. These were self- 
sacrificing emigrants, the others were self-seeking. 
Justice, though tardy in its work, will yet load 
with the highest honors the memorj^ of the heroic 
Kansas pioneers who gave themselves and all they 
had to the sacred cause of human rights. 

This pioneer colony left Boston on the lYth of 
July, 1854. Immense crowds had gathered at the 
station to give them the parting godspeed and the 
pledge of their future cordial care. They moved 
out of the station amid the cheering crowds who 
lined the track for several blocks. The fact of this 
intense public interest impelled others to prepare 
to join the colony, intending to go one month later. 



70 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Such was the effect of the pubHc enthusiasm — an 
earnest, sufficient for the thoughtful, of certain suc- 
cess in the future. 

The emigrants remained in Worcester the first 
night and received a suitable ovation. Several of 
the leading citizens called upon them and applaud- 
ed their patriotic devotion, pledging remembrance 
and aid in any emergency. Two Worcester me- 
chanics, Mr. Fuller and Mr. Mallory, here joined 
the colony.' 

The next day I took charge of the party, and 
we were met in the evening at Albany by a good 
number of the citizens, who welcomed us Avitli 
great cordiality. The next day we were cheered 
at all the principal stations as we passed on our 
westward journey, until we reached Eochester. 
Here a very large crowd had gathered to welcome 
• and cheer the party. The president of the Monroe 
County Bible Society made an address, and pre- 
sented the colony Avith a large and elegant Bible ; 
so that Mr. Whittier's poem, subsequently written, 
was historically correct in saying : 

"Upbearing, as the ark of old, 
The Bible in our van." 

Much to our delight, Eochester furnished us two 
recruits — a Dr. Doy, and a youth of great promise, 
and afterwards of great performance, D. E. An- 
thony. From that day forward to the end of the 
great conflict, Mr. Anthony devoted himself with 
tireless enero:v to the work of makinc: Kansas free. 
He is now living to witness and enjoy in wealth 



SITE OF LAWRENCE DETERMINED. 71 

and honor the grand results of that great achieve- 
ment. 

On the evening of that day I put the httle colony 
on board the steamer Plymouth Roclc, in Buffalo, 
to cross the lake. I was obliged to return East to 
begin the work of raising the second colony ; but 
before taking leave of my charge, I wrote a letter 
to Charles H. Branscomb, our agent in Kansas, who 
was to meet this party in St. Louis. The letter 
directed him to lead the colony up the valley of 
the Kaw Kiver, through the Shawmee reservation, 
and locate them on the south side of the river, on 
the first good towm-site west of the Shawnees. 
Mr. Branscomb, in accordance wath my direction, 
founded the celebrated city of Lawrence, subse- 
quently the centre of the free -State power, and 
now the seat of the State University, and of the 
famous Indian school, the Haskell Institute. 

During the entire journey from Worcester to 
Buffalo I had been carefully considering where it 
would be best to locate the first colony. It seemed 
wise to plant the first town at such a distance from 
the Missouri line that it could not be easily assailed 
by hostile forces from that State without ample 
notice to our people and some chance for prepara- 
tions for defence. I therefore decided that our 
town should be about fifty miles from Missouri. 
I chose the valley of the Kaw as being in the cen- 
tral portion of the Territory, and destined at an 
early day to have railway communication with the 
East. I chose the south bank of the Kaw, so that 
the Platte Purchase of Missouri and the new town 



72 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

would have two wide rivers between tliem. These 
were the main reasons for the specific directions iu 
my letter to Mr. Branscomb. 

The history of the Kansas contest abundantly 
justified the selection made. The following quo- 
tation from Senator AVilson's History gives a cor- 
rect idea of the decisive work of the Emigrant Aid 
Company : 

"The Emigrant Aid Societies of New England, though free- 
dom in Kansas was one object, had others which, with their 
methods, were indicated by their name. Their purpose and 
plan were to aid those who would procure lands and make for 
themselves homes in the new Territory. They contemplated 
only peaceful modes, though the emigrants themselves were of 
course compelled to resort to such means of self-defence as the 
' border-ruffian ' policy rendered imperative. 

" The New England Emigrant Aid Society, the first and most 
prominent of these free-State organizations, originated with Eli 
Thayer, of Worcester, Massachusetts, a member of the Legislat- 
ure of that State in 1854. Preparing a charter, he procured an 
Act of Incorporation early in that year. Immediately on the ad- 
journment of that body he entered upon the Avork, in which he 
was greatl}^ aided by Amos A. Lawrence and J. M. S. Williams, 
of Massachusetts, and John Carter Brown, of Rhode Island. 
Success crowned his labors; the association was organized, and 
on the 17th of July he started with a company of twenty-four 
for that far-off land. As the successful working up of his plan 
required his presence at the East, he accompanied them only as 
far as Buffalo. . . . 

"In August, another colony, and much larger, came. With 
their New England outfit was v. steam saw-mill. The new-com- 
ers entered in earnest upon the work of making themselves a 
home on that inviting spot, and soon their canvas tents gave 
place to more substantial structures. Among the members of 
the second company were Dr. Charles Hobinson and Samuel C. 
Pomeroy, the one becoming the first governor under the free- 
State Constitution, and the latter subsequently a member of the 
United States Senate. 



nEx\RY WILSON'S VIEWS. 73 

"This organized effort of free-State men, and the fact that 
they had formed a settlement, and that the town of Lawrence 
had actually taken form and name, produced a marked impres- 
sion both North and South. At the North it kindled anew hopes 
which the course of events had wellnigh extinguished. . . . Not 
only did several additional colonies go from Massachusetts and 
the other New England States, but similar colonies were formed 
in the States of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. To this 
work Mr. Thayer devoted himself with tireless energy and un- 
ceasing effort. Fully impressed with the idea that the free 
States had the power to secure in this way freedom to the Ter- 
ritories, he travelled sixty thousand miles, and made hundreds 
of speeches enunciating these views, and calling upon the peo- 
ple to join in this grand crusade." * 

* Wilson's "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America," 
vol. ii., p. 465. 
4 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE IMPOTENCE OF THE ANTISLAVEEY DISUNIONISTS. 

The Puritans of the Mayflower were opposed to 
slavery. 

The first legislative assembly of white men in 
JSTew England made a laAV that " no bond slavery, 
villeinage, or captivitie should ever exist in the 
Massachusetts Colony." 

Slavery never had a legal existence in Massachu- 
setts, as was proved in the Quirk Walker case in 
Barre, Worcester County, during the Revolution- 
ary War. 

In 1787 the entire country vras opposed to the 
extension of slavery, and considered it a great evil. 
The ordinance introduced by Thomas Jefferson in 
1781 was passed in 1787 with but one dissenting 
vote, given by a New York member. Though that 
ordinance was of no practical use — only an expres- 
sion of opinion, or a manifesto — its existence upon 
the statute-book served to show the hostihty of the 
people of this country to chattel slavery. 

While the people of the Northern States were 
nearly unanimous in their hatred of slavery, and 
were anxious that the entire country should be res- 
cued from its curse, they still regarded the destruc- 
tion of the Government as a calamity infinitely 



BENJAMIN LUNDY. 75 

greater. They watched the development of our 
national progress, and hoped for a solution of the 
question between the J^orth and the South Avith- 
out the loss of the Union. Patiently waiting, and 
restraining all impulsive feehngs, they were ready 
for effective action whenever the proper time should 
come. 

Benjamin Lundy, however, was impatient of de- 
lay, and earnestly devoted himself to the patriotic 
work of hastening his country's deliverance. Born 
of Quaker parents, in the State of New Jersey, in 
1789, he worked upon his father's farm until nine- 
teen years of age, when he wandered westward to 
Wheeling, Virginia, wdiere he learned by actual ob- 
servation the curse of slavery to all connected with 
it, both black and white. In 1815, when twenty- 
six years of age, he organized an antislavery socie- 
ty, by the name of the " Union Humane Society." 
The first meeting was held at his own house, and 
consisted of less than a dozen persons. Within a 
few months the membership was increased to sev- 
eral hundred, and included many prominent men 
in his own and adjoining counties. In 1816 he pub- 
lished an "Appeal to Philanthropists," which con- 
tained the germ of his future antislavery work. 
After this he travelled much in the slave States, 
and organized many antislavery societies in the 
very home of slavery. At length he started a pa- 
per called the Genius of Universal Emancipation. 
During the summer of 1824 he travelled on foot 
through the States of Virginia and J^orth Carolina, 
making addresses and forming antislavery socle- 



76 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

ties. In October of that year he reached Balti- 
more, and there resumed at once the pubhcation 
of the Genius. He was highly esteemed and well 
sustained in the slave States. Feeble in body and 
far from robust in mind, he still had the heart of a 
true philanthropist and the devotion of the early 
Christian martyrs. 

In the autumn of 1828 Lundy came to Massachu- 
setts to form antislavery societies, to co-operate 
with those which he had already established in the 
slave States. He delivered an address in the Town- 
haU in Worcester on the 20th of August, and the 
two papers of the city comment upon it as follows : 

" Mr. Lund3% from a long residence in the Southern States, 
could speak from personal knowledge of the feelings of the peo- 
ple there. A majority of them, and even of the slave-holders, 
are desirous of abolishing the slave system as soon as it can be 
done with prudence." — Massachusetts Yeoman, August 23,1828. 

The Sjyy of September 3d says : 

"In the slave States a great number, and probably a majority, 
of the people are anxious to be freed from the evil of slavery as 
scon as it can prudently be done." 

Lundy next went to Boston upon the same mis- 
sion, and addressed a meeting of clergymen, urging 
a friendly co-operation with the people of the South 
in extinguishing slavery. That he produced a de- 
cided effect upon his audience is proved by the fol- 
lowing letter, written directly after the meeting, 
by Kev. Dr. William E. Channiug to Hon. Daniel 
Webster : 



CHANNING TO WEBSTER. 77 

" BosTOxV, May 14, 182S, 

"My dear Sir, — I wish to call your attention to a subject of 
general interest. 

" A little while ago, Mr. Lundy, of Baltimore, the editor of a 
paper called the Genius of Universal Emancipation, visited this 
part of the country to stir up the work of abolishing slavery at 
the South, and the intention is to organize societies for this pur- 
pose. I know few objects into which I should enter with more 
zeal, but I am aware how cautiously exertions are to be made 
for it in this part of the country. I know that our Southern 
brethren interpret every w^ord from this region on the subject of 
slavery as an expression of hostility. I would ask if they can- 
not be brought to understand us better, and if we can do any 
good till we remove their misapprehensions? It seems to me 
that before moving in this matter we ought to say to them dis- 
tinctly, ' We consider slavery as your calamity, not your crime, 
and we will share with you the burden of putting an end to it. 
We will consent that the public lands shall be appropriated to 
this object, or that the General Government shall be clothed with 
power to apply a portion of the revenue to it.' 

"I throw out these suggestions merely to illustrate my views. 
We must first let the Southern States see that we are iheiv friends 
in this affair; that we sympathize with them, and, from princi- 
ples of patriotism and philanthropy, are willing to share the toil 
and expense of abolishing slaver}^, or I fear our interference will 
avail nothing. I am tlie more sensitive on this subject from my 
increased solicitude for the preservation of the Union. I know 
no public interest so important as this. I ask from the General 
Government hardly any other boon than that it will hold us to- 
gether, and preserve pacific relations and intercourse between 
the States. I deprecate everything which sows discord and exas- 
perates sectional animosities. If it will simply keep us at peace, 
and will maintain in full power the national courts for the pur- 
pose of settling quietly among citizens of different States questions 
which might otherwise be settled by arms, I shall be satisfied. 

"My fear in regard to our efforts against slavery is that we 
shall make the cause worse by rousing a sectional pride and pas- 
sion for its support, and that we shall break the country into 
two great parties, which may shake the foundations of the 
Government. 



78 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

"I Lave written to yon because j'^our situation gives you ad- 
vantages which perhaps no other man enjoys for understanding 
the method, if any can be devised, by which we may operate 
beneficially and safely in regard to slavery. Appeals will prob- 
ably be made soon to the people here, and I wish that wise men 
would save us from the rashness of enthusiasts, and from the 
perils to which our very virtues expose us. 

' ' With great respect, your friend, 

"William E. Ciiannino. 

"Hon. Daniel Webster." 

But unfortunately, Luncly, while in Boston, hap- 
pened to board in the same house with a young 
printer by the name of William Lloyd Garrison. 
This youth had formed no definite ideas upon the 
subject of slavery, but under the tuition of Lundy 
became a convert to antislavery, and accompanied 
him to Baltimore to assist in publishing his paper. 
This journal was sustained mainly by subscribers 
and advertisers in the slave States, where he had 
been doing his quiet but effective antislavery work. 

As soon, however, as Garrison began to write for 
the paper a fierce hostility was aroused among the 
slave-holders. George Alfred Townsend, in a letter 
to the Boston Globe^ calls these disunionists " the 
snorting Abolitionists," and describes the result of 
Garrison's connection with Lundy as follows : 

"When Garrison went to Baltimore Cit}', about 1829, to join 
Benjamin Lundy in the publication of an emancipation newspa- 
per, there were some three hundred societies in the slave States, 
bottomed upon a moral dissatisfaction with the institution of 
slavery. 

" When Mr. Garrison got to Baltimore he changed the meth- 
ods of Mr. Lundy, who was a Quakerly sort of person, and began 
to attack individuals as if they were personally responsible for 



GARRISON A MARPLOT. 79 

the status of slavery. So in a little while there were personal 
inquisitors, and all the work which Lundy had done dissolved." 

It is much to be deplored that at this time, when 
there was a friendly feeling between the I^ortli and 
the South, and a disposition to co-operate in getting 
rid of slavery, that the work begun by Lundy and 
approved by Dr. Channing should have been arrest- 
ed and destroyed. The gradual extinction of sla- 
very could then have been made certain by well- 
directed efforts of men so earnest and patriotic. 
Such a chance for relief was never again presented. 

After Garrison began to issue his vituperative 
fulminations in Lundy's paper, the South became 
imbittered against all antislavery men, however 
moderate. Then in a few years the slave-holders, 
under the guidance of Calhoun, were united for the 
purpose of not only protecting their legal rights, 
but of extending slavery until it should become the 
controlling political power of the country. This 
union of the slave-holders accomplished in a few 
years the political supremacy of slavery, and sub- 
jected to its undisputed control every department 
of the ISTational Government. 

In this way Garrison, discarding the mild and 
quiet methods of Lundy, began to denounce the 
slave-holders as pirates, thieves, and robbers. He 
was thereupon prosecuted, fined, and imprisoned. 
After he had lain in jail forty-nine days, Arthur 
Tappan, of ¥ew York City, sent the money which 
secured his liberation. But he had already de- 
stroyed poor Lundy. He had not only captivated 
but captured him. He had instilled into the mind 



80 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

of the just and peaceful Quaker a part of his own 
virulence and love of anarchy. 

So, in 1837, John Quincy Adams sa3^s : " Lundy 
and the Abolitionists generally are constantly 
urging me to indiscreet movements, which would 
ruin me and weaken and not strengthen their 
cause." 

From the day of Garrison's connection with 
Lundy the latter's success in the antislavery cause 
began to decline, and after a few years his sub- 
scribers had all left him, and all the antislavery 
societies which he had formed in the slave States 
had been disbanded. He then went to Philadel- 
phia and started another paper, but he failed to 
prosper. Misfortune followed misfortune, until in 
a few years, overwhelmed by poverty and disap- 
pointment, and exhausted by his ardent but inef- 
fectual work for freedom, he departed from life.* 

It has been unwisely said that Lnndy served to 
keep the antislavery torch burning, until Garrison 
could take it from his hand and bear it onward. 
Before Lundy's death, his torch of antislavery had 
been extinguished, and w^as never borne by Garri- 
son, its extinguisher, or any one, thereafter. The 
latter-day fanatics had no wish for torches to light 
their path ; they wanted only the missiles and 
weapons of anarchy. Such methods cannot with 
any reason be called a continuation of Lundy's 
work. His work was destroyed, not continued. 



* Earle's "Life of Benjamin Lundy, " Greeley's ' ' Great Amer- 
ican Conflict." 



"PLAUSIBLE RASCALITY." 81 

After his liberation from prison, Garrison wan- 
dered about for several months, smarting under 
the indignities and penalties which his disregard of 
law had brought upon him. From that time he 
vowed vengeance against slave-holders, and was 
planning methods to make his vengeance keenly 
felt. At length he reached Boston, and started the 
Liberator — the arsenal in which he was to manu- 
facture and store his vengeful missiles. In its first 
number he employed the same vituperative and 
mandatory style which for thirty years character- 
ized that disloyal and vindictive sheet. He said : 

"A greater revolution in public sentiment is to be effected in 
the free States, particularly in New England, than at the South. 
. . . Let Southern oppressors tremble! Let their Northern apol- 
ogists tremble! ... On this subject I do not wish to speak or 
write with moderation." 

Samuel Eliot, in his " History of the United 
States," page 369, gives an accurate account of the 
early antislavery movement, and its obstruction 
by Garrison, as follows : 

" In the history of the movement against slavery in the United 
States, two periods are easily observed. The first is from the 
beginning of the Governm.ent to 1831, during which antislavery 
meant opposition to an evil from which all parts of the country 
were suffering, and to the relief of which all must contribute. 
Slavery was to be removed gradually, and with compensation to 
the owners of slaves who might be emancipated. As a general 
rule, societies were the instruments to be employed in bringing 
about the desired results, the subject being too delicate or too 
vast, or both, for individual action. All this changes in the sec- 
ond period, from 1831 forward. Slavery is the sin for which 
those only who tolerate it are to pay the penalty; it is to be wiped 
4^ 



83 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

out at once, and without compensating those who have upheld 
it; and as its abolition is to be effected only at great risks and in 
defiance of powerful traditions, it must be the work of individ- 
uals, who, though combined in associations, are mostly engaged 
in individual action. It was a natural consequence of this con- 
trast that while the South co-operated in antislavery movements 
before 1831 it set itself against them afterwards. Of 144 anti- 
slavery societies in 1826, 108 were Southern. Of the compara- 
tively few ten years later, all were Northern. . . . ' The grand 
rallying- point,' according to Garrison and his associates, was 
the repeal of the Union. Other repeals were proposed; that of 
the pulpit, which had not thundered as it ought against slavery; 
that of the churches, which had not forced their pulpits to thun- 
der. These passionate demands threw back Abolitionism, instead 
of advancing it. Men willing to act against slavery were not 
willing to act against their country or their church, and instead 
of becoming Abolitionists they became anti- Abolitionists, An- 
other party would have to be formed to take the lead, and this 
could not be done in a day. " 

To accomplish the grand results laid down in 
their programme, the Garrisonites proposed to 
make use of " moral influence only." The hypoc- 
risy of this pretence is admirably shown in volume 
four of Schouler's History, page 216, as follows : 

"They had deluged the South with incendiary pamphlets, 
whose tendency, whether they so meant it or not, was to excite 
the slaves to rise against their masters. This latter appeal to 
terrorism was the device of the American Antislavery Society, 
which set aside a large sum of money to circulate gratuitously 
their seditious writings where it was death to distribute them 
openly. Tracts and periodicals printed expressly for this pur- 
pose, with pictures even more inflammatory than the text they 
illustrated — the master with scourge in his hand and his victim 
at his feet— were struck off by the thousand, some printed on 
cheap muslin handkerchiefs, and deposited in the mail for the 
South. The best antislavery statesmen, such as Adams, have 



INCITING SERVILE WAR. 83 

believed that the purpose was incendiary; and though agitators 
denied that they intended more than to reach the conscience of 
Southern legislators, this denial was not accepted; denying that 
they sent such documents to the slaves, they tacitly confessed 
mailing them to free blacks. The grave charge, never explicitly 
denied by them, that this was an experiment to terrify the mas- 
ters by kindling a new insurrection among the blacks, was made 
and reiterated by our whole people, and the Abolitionists were 
deterred from trying such methods again." 

Had these incendiaries been successful in their 
attemjDts to incite a servile war, they would have 
inflicted a much greater wrong upon the slaves than 
upon their masters. They appear, however, to have 
desired to demonstrate with characteristic lo^ic 
their love for the African by making him a mur- 
derer. 

If their gusty fury had only possessed cyclonic 
power, they would have wrecked the Government, 
abolished the pulpit and the church, and shattered 
into fragments the civilization of this continent. 

It has been wisely provided that infants are not 
Samsons. 

Koosevelt, in his "Life of Benton," page 159, 
says : 

" The antislavery outburst in the Northern States over the ad- 
mission of Missouri took place a dozen years before there was an 
Abolition society in existence, and the influence of the profes- 
sional Abolitionists upon the growth of the antislavery sen- 
timent as often as not merely warped it and twisted it out of 
proper shape — as when they adopted disunion views, although 
it was self-evident that by no possibility could slavery be abol- 
ished unless the Union was preserved," 

The natural hostility to slavery which had al- 
ways characterized the ISTorth was aggravated from 



84 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

time to time by some new aggression of the Slave 
Power. The increased antislavery zeal thus secured 
Tvas invariably claimed by Garrison and his friends 
as the result of their own agitation. I^othing could 
be further from the truth. Sensible men of all 
parties and of all religious beliefs were unanimous 
in the expression that these agitators had much re- 
tarded the development and effectiveness of the 
practical antislavery sentiment of the countrj^ 
There are numerous and illustrious examples of 
such opinions, some of which are here presented ; 
first, extracts from a sermon preached in Hartford 
in 1839 by Kev. Dr. Horace Bushnell, as follows : 

"I turn, on the other hand, to our antislavery brethren, and 
say, do not regard yourselves too hastily as the beginning of a 
movement for liberty, or assume too much consequence to your- 
selves in the organization you have raised up. Neither conclude 
too hastily that what you are doing is a real advantage. The 
destruction of slavery will be accomplished, either with you or 
without you ; or, if you make it necessary, in spite of you. 
There is a law in the case above you and above us all. The 
river has been in motion for ages, with a deep, strong, broad- 
sweeping current. You may disturb the clearness of its waters, 
you may pump off some of it into by-trenches and ponds, but 
still it will flow on in its predestined course, in the power and 
undiverted majesty of Him who bids it flow. . . . 

" Instead of beginning in the proper vfay, your first movement 
here at the North was a rank onset and explosion. . . . 

*' The first sin of this organization was a sin of ill-manners. 
They did not go to work like Christian gentlemen. They went 
to work much as if they were going to drive the masters as they 
do their negroes. The great convention which met at Philadel- 
phia drew up a declaration of their sentiments, in which they 
visibly affected the style and tone of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. . . . And yet it is coupled with a sort of effect ; I 
hardly know whether to call it sad or ludicrous when you figure 



DR. BUSHNELL'S VIEWS. 85 

to yourselves a body of men gathered in solemn convention at 
Philadelphia, and declaring independence, as it were, for slavery! 
— an act exactly fitted to alienate every friend they had or could 
have had at the South, and shut his lips forever; an act by 
which they wilfully and boorishly cast off the whole South from 
them, and kindled against themselves a flame of madness so hot 
as to exclude all approach, and create an embargo against all 
their arguments. . . . 

" There is no probability that we shall ever join with you. 
And do not think that it is mere ignorance which at present 
keeps us from doing it. I believe that I have watched your 
movement and known it as well as most of you have done your- 
selves; but never for a moment have I been impressed with any 
feeling of obligation except the obligation not to unite with your 
societies. I never could have done it without a violation of my 
conscience and better judgment. . . . Kew England still is, at 
bottom, thoroughly opposed to slavery. And though it may 
seem strange to you, I will affirm without scruple that liberty in 
every form, and not least in the abolition of slavery, is a popular 
doctrine. Our fathers and all our statesmen of the old type 
were Abolitionists. Could you ask a stronger evidence than that 
they abolished slavery themselves? . . . 

"There is in New England a deep and settled opposition to 
slavery, and nothing is wanting but to let it forth. Your soci- 
ety is now the greatest obstacle to its manifestation. . . . But 
how is this? you inquire; have not we ourselves called out res- 
olutions on this subject in the Legislatures of Vermont, Massa- 
chusetts, and Connecticut? You are in danger, I repl3% of taking 
more to yourselves in this matter than you ought. You know 
very well that these Legislatures do not regard you or your 
measures, as a society, with favor. They deprecate your course, 
they disclaim all fellowship with you in the very act of voting. 
When you understand this, you may readily guess that it is not 
your society which, all at once, has made them friends of liberty. 
They speak not with your voice, but with the ancient spirit of 
New England; they move not in your line, but in their own, 
with a hearty repugnance to your alliance. . . . 

"And now I think I am right in saying that the ministry of 
New England, together with the better class of public men gen- 
erally, are ready to take their stand practically and soberly for 



86 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

the abolition of slavery. Our Legislatures, you perceive, are 
willing to vote opinions wbicli look that way. But mark, wliile 
this is true, there is no disposition manifested to fall into your 
strain of action or to become identified with the odium unneces- 
sarily aftracted by your movement. They Avould feel, in fact, 
that an identification with your society would be only throwing 
themselves into the worst possible position for acting with ef- 
fect. . . . 

" If you wish to put a man of real weight quite out of the 
way, to hide him, or make his name a cipher as regards this 
question, you need only put him into an antislavery association. 
lie will lie there sweltering under the heated mass of numbers, 
like the giant under ^tna, and by men as little felt or regarded." 

Not less forcible than the above views of Dr. 
Bushnell are the following criticisms of Dr. Will- 
iam E. Charming. No one can accuse either of 
these loyal, patriotic, and eminent divines of preju- 
dice or of undue severity. 

"The Abolitionists have done wrong, I believe; nor is their 
wrong to be winked at, because done fanatically or with good 
intention ; for how much mischief may be wrought by good de- 
sign? They have fallen into the common error of enthusiasts, 
that of taking too narrow views, of feeling that no evil existed 
but that which they opposed, and as if no guilt could be com- 
pared with that of countenancing or upholding it. The tone of 
their newspapers, as far as I have seen them, has often been 
fierce, bitter, exasperating. . . . One of their errors has been the 
adoption of ' Immediate Emancipation ' as their motto. To this 
they owe not a little of their unpopularity. . . . Another objection 
to their movement is that they have sought to accomplish their 
objects by a system of agitation; that is, by a system of affiliated 
societies, gathered and held together and extended by passionate 
eloquence. . . . The adoption of the common system of agitation 
by the Abolitionists has not been justified by success. From the 
beginning it created alarm in the considerate, and strengthened 
the sympathies of the free States with the slave-holder. It made 
converts of a few individuals, but alienated multitudes. Its in- 



FEELING WITHOUT ACTION A CURSE. 87 

flucuce at the South has been almost wholly evil. It has stirred 
up bitter passions and a fierce fanaticism which have shut every 
ear and every heart agaiust its arguments and persuasions. 
These effects are more to be deplored, because the hope of free- 
dom to the slave lies chiefly in the disposition of his master. 
The Abolitionist proposed, indeed, to convert the slave-holders; 
and for this end he approached them with vituperation and ex- 
hausted on them the vocabulary of reproach. And he has reaped 
as he sowed. . . . Thus, with good purposes, nothing seems to 
have been gained. Perhaps (though I am anxious to repel the 
thought) something has been lost to the cause of freedom and 
humanity. . . . 

'♦There is a great dread in this part of the country that the 
union of the States may be dissolved by the conflict about slavery. 
To avert this evil every sacrifice should be made but that of 
honor, freedom, and principle. No one prizes the Union more 
than myself. Perhaps I may say that I am attached to it by no 
common love. Most men value the Union as a Means; to me it 
is an End. Most would preserve it for the prosperity of which 
it is the instrument; I love and would preserve it for its own 
sake." 



One very great error in the methods of these Ab- 
ohtionists was the constant effort to stimulate feel- 
ing upon the slavery question without suggesting 
any practical action. In all their annual, semi-an- 
nual, and quarterly conventions, as well as in their 
numerous antislavery bazaars, the most fiery, furi- 
ous, and passionate of their orators pictured blood- 
hounds, auction - blocks, manacles, and whipping- 
posts. Tears and waihng were the result. The 
only action they proposed was utterly impossi- 
ble : the destruction of the Government, the over- 
throw of the Constitution, the dissolution of the 
Union, and the abolition of the pulpit and the 
church. All this intensely stimulated feeling, cut 



88 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

off from action, resulted in inability to act. That 
such Avoukl be the inevitable result, they might 
have learned from any sound work on mental and 
moral philosophy. But disregarding every admo- 
nition, whether of science or experience, they al- 
lowed their sentimental intoxication to develop 
into emotional insanity or chronic monomania. 
They could see but one sin in all the world, and 
that was slavery. This they would abolish imme- 
diately, with no care for ruinous results. Their 
"plausible rascality," without one glimmer of 
statesmanship, or one impulse of patriotism, v/as 
ever in harmony with disunion and anarchy. Their 
morbid fancy had devoured their strength. 

"And like the bat of Indian brakes, 
Her pinions fan the wound she makes; 
And soolhinc^ thus the dreamer's pains, 
She drinks the life-blood from his veins." 

As a substitute for action, however, they passed 
resolutions. In this industry they excelled, by far, 
all other people whether secular or religious. There 
was a race of prehistoric men whom ethnologists 
call the "Mound-builders." The best descriptive 
term for the Garrison Abolitionists would be the 
" resolution-builders." They never came any noarer 
to the attainment of an object than to pass a reso- 
lution about it, and have it recorded in the Liber- 
ator^ the birthplace and sepulchre of all their hopes, 
purposes, and aspirations. 

When there were twenty thousand people in 
Kansas, Mr. Garrison said, " Among all the people 



I 



NO ABOLITIONISTS IN KANSAS. 89 

who have emigrated to that country there is 
scarcely one Abolitionist." Yery true, and very 
fortunate that it was true. I knew of several 
young men who joined our colonies after having 
wasted all their energies in sighing and weeping 
for " the poor slave ;" but they all returned before 
reaching the Territory. After a few months' ex- 
perience in raising colonies I advised all these 
tearful specimens to stay at home. The best and 
most trustworthy emigrants in the cause of free 
Kansas were of the old Whig and Democratic par- 
ties. They hated slavery as much as any one, but 
they had not exhausted their strength in deploring 
the " great sin of slavery." They knew it was a 
great curse to the country, and were desirous of 
ending it, if it could be done according to law and 
without the loss of the Union. They used but few 
words, but they meant all they said. They went 
to Kansas to make a free State, and they made it. 
But how the Abolitionists of the Garrison school 
denounced them, when at the convention at Big 
Springs in 1855 they voted unanimously that when 
Kansas should become a State there should be no 
negroes in it, either slave or free ! At the next free- 
State convention, held in Lawrence, they voted 
the same way. Again at Topeka they repeated 
what they had twice affirmed. Of course no Abo- 
litionist could have done this, neither could any 
Liberty party man ; hardly any Free-soiler. But 
it was policy at that time to vote as they did. 
There were many people from the South there. 
They were poor, and had never owned slaves ; but 



90 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

their prejudice against free negroes was much 
greater than against slavery. If there were to be 
no free negroes in Kansas, they were free -State 
men ; if there were to be free negroes there, they 
were slave-State men. By this policy of our dis- 
creet pioneers from the Is'orth — members of the 
Whig and Democratic parties — more than half of 
the settlers in Kansas from the slave States became 
free-State men, and in unison vvith our own emi- 
grants from the free States. 

In my sixty thousand miles of travel in raising 
Kansas colonies I was never rebuked for my meth- 
ods and arguments but once, and that opposition 
occurred in Montpelier, Yermont. I had addressed 
a very large audience in the largest hall in the place 
for two hours. I had dwelt upon the bad economy 
of slavery, and recommended to such in the meet- 
ing* as miHit g:o to Kansas to make friends of the 
poor v»'hites who came there from the South, and 
to show them, from the United States census, how 
much more their quarter sections would be worth 
in a free State than they would be in a slave State ; 
also what a difference there would be in educa- 
tional advantages, in the mechanic arts, and in all 
that civilized man esteems valuable. You, I said, 
like our colonists now there, are to be the mission- 
aries of free labor, and are to build up the noblest 
of all our free States in the very centre of the re- 
public. 

I had just concluded when a venerable man of 
seventy years or more arose in the audience, and 
said : 



ABOLITIOX HOSTILITY. * 91 

" I have listened Avith deep humiliation— yes, I may say with 
extreme mortification, to tlie arguments of Mr. Thayer, in favor 
of making Kansas a free State. The methods which he uses 
and which he urges his emigrants to adopt are exceedingly re- 
pulsive to me. He has told us how he makes his emigrants mis- 
sionaries of freedom. I consider them missionaries of mammon. 
They arc to show the Southerners that it will pay better to es- 
tahlish freedom in Kansas. I protest against lowering our glori- 
ous standard of Liberty to such base expedients. I would a 
thousand times prefer that Kansas should be a slave State rather 
than be a free State for any other reason than this, that slavery 
is a sin against God." 

The unhappy man seemed to have no supporters 
in the meeting, for no one applauded and many 
hissed. After a few minutes they called for me. I 
simply said that I should enter into no controver- 
sy with the venerable gentleman who had spoken, 
since it w^ould be a very unfair encounter, as the au- 
dience seemed to favor me and oppose him. But I 
still adhered to my methods, and would prefer to 
see Kansas a free State for the vrorst reasons, rath- 
er than a slave State for the best reasons. 

The professed Garrisonites w^ere not the only 
writers and speakers wdio stroA^e to intensify feel- 
ing against slavery, without even suggesting any 
practical action. All such writers and speakers did 
great harm. A boy or girl who w^eeps over the 
misery described in a dime novel is very much 
w^eakened for all really charitable work. Hence 
hundreds of writers, both of prose and poetry, 
weakened the effective antislavery work of the 
country, and destroyed to a great extent vigorous 
manhood by stimulating feelings Avhich had noth- 



93 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

ing to do but to corrode and destroy their own ten- 
ements. The trustworthy and effective men in the 
great pivotal contest against slavery upon the prai- 
ries of Kansas were those who had not worn them- 
selves out in direful apprehensions or wasted their 
strength in exhausting pity. They never had said, 
" Slavery has always had its own way, and always 
will have it." They believed that God had made 
freedom stronger than slavery, and that now, since 
politicians had nothing more to do with this mat- 
ter, it was wise for the people to make an honest 
and exhaustive test of the comparative strength of 
these two forces in Kansas. Before the organized 
movement of such men, slavery was like a cripple 
assailed by Briareus with his hundred arms. 

It was my custom in all my addresses to dwell 
upon the inherent and irresistible power of free la- 
bor, and to predict its speedy triumph. This confi- 
dence begat enthusiasm, and the people responded 
in large and eager audiences. They were much 
more interested in the physical advantages of free- 
dom than in the moral deformity of slavery. 

From what has already been said, the thoughtful 
reader will readily understand how these disunion- 
ists were prepared by their training to despise all 
practical men and all feasible measures. It was 
one of their foibles to assume that they had " pre- 
empted " the slavery question, and that nobody else 
had any business with it. Hence, when the Emigrant 
Aid Company was organized and put into successful 
operation, they tried by speeches and writing, by 
ridicule and argument, to make its work abortive. 



SCHOULER'S VIEWS. 93 

It was great good-fortune, however, for the cause 
of freedom in Kansas that this class of men opposed 
it. Had they favored it, all the prospects of its 
success would have been destroyed at the outset. 
Very few people could have been induced to work 
with them under any circumstances. Had they 
advocated slavery for as many years as they advo- 
cated disunion, and with the same blind intensity 
and malignity, they might have crippled even that 
robust institution. From their very natures they 
could not be coworkers with the people in any 
cause. They were malignant spirits, at war with 
everybody. 

They are well described by Schouler, in his last 
work, as follows : 

" They were not actors in affairs, but agitators, critics, come- 
outers, coiners of cutting epithets, who scourged men in public 
station with as little mercy as ever the slave-driver did his vic- 
tim, less pleased that their work was being done than displeased 
because it was not done faster. Their political blunders widened 
the breach between the North and the South, and their constant 
instigation was to throttle that law which was the breath of our 
being— to trample down the Union, rather than convert, con- 
strain, or conquer slavery behind the shield of the Constitution. 
This was because of their fanaticism. Not one leader of this 
school ever took a responsible part in affairs, or co-operated in 
lawful and practical measures for promoting the reform they 
caressed in their preaching." 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE ABOLITIONISTS AND THE PLAN OF FREEDOM. 

For several years past it has been the practice 
of many thoughtless and sentimental speakers and 
Avriters to extol Garrison and Philhps for work 
which they had no hand in doing. In paroxysms 
of grotesque eulogy rivalling the wildest utterances 
of the ancient pythoness at Delphi, these Will-o'- 
the-wisp luminaries dazzle, confound, and mislead 
the people, their own heated imaginations supply- 
ing fancies instead of facts. 

The repeated confessions of these disunionists 
that they had achieved no success is reinforced by 
the most authoritative testimony of eminent states- 
men and journalists. The Kansas contest was 
caused by the new methods of migration, under 
the guiding and protecting power of a strong com- 
pany adapted to this special work. This company 
was in favor of law and the Union. For that rea- 
son it was naturally hated by the disunionists, but 
especially because it had determined to overthrow 
slavery in its own way and by its own methods, 
without even asking their advice or co-operation. 

While the Emigrant Aid Company was by its 
operations creating a well-founded alarm in the 
Southern States, and was receiving the commcnda- 



UNFOUNDED PRETENSIONS. 95 

tion and gratitude of every true lover of freedom 
for the practical results it had accomplished, let us 
see how it was regarded by that peculiar clique. 
At the time of the repeal of the Missouri Compro- 
mise, and the passage of the Kansas-Kebraska Bill, 
these men had been absolutely silent ; and in the 
period of gloom and despair at the North that fol- 
lowed that iniquity, they had no words either of 
counsel, of encouragement, or of commiseration to 
offer. ISTo sooner, however, was a feasible plan of 
retrieving the disaster set forth, than Mr. Garrison 
and his associates opened their batteries of vituper- 
ation upon it and its authors, as they had always 
assailed every feasible measure, and everybody who 
proposed to do something for the cause of freedom ; 
and as they continued to assail everybody and ev- 
erything except disunion, until, in spite of them and 
without their aid, the great object was achieved. 
Then they and their admirers turned about and 
coolly said, " We did all this ourselves !" The pres- 
ent generation has, in consequence of the persistent 
clack and endless scribbling of that class, come to 
beheve that Mr. Garrison was the Alpha and Ome- 
ga of the antislavery struggle, and that he and his 
small party of followers were the leaders and direct- 
ors of the great movement that brought about the 
overthrow of slavery. These men and Avomen have 
never exhibited any diffidence or modesty in sound- 
ing their own praises. They formed a mutual ad- 
miration society possessed by an unusual malignity 
towards those who did not belong to it ; yet, not 
content with fighting the outside world, they fre- 



96 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

quently snarled and quarrelled among themselves, 
and attempted to destroy each other. The perse- 
cution they endured Avas not on account of the 
antislavery principles they maintained. It was their 
abusive and insulting manner, and particularly their 
offensive obtrusion of the unpopular and unpatriotic 
doctrines of secession and disunion upon every occa- 
sion, that principally excited the passions of the mob. 

In fact, the little company of Abolitionists had 
come to be despised at the North, and they were 
neglected and shunned by the better element for 
the reasons above given. Almost invariably, in 
presenting my plan of emigration, the question 
Avould come, Has Garrison anything to do with 
this ? Is there any taint of Abolitionism in it ? I 
had to assure my hearers that it Avas entirely free 
from that objectionable element. However, as Mr. 
Garrison and his friends have been elevated into 
such a prominent position, and as an exaggerated 
and distorted idea of their services largely prevails, 
some even believing that they aided in the saving 
of Kansas, it is proper for me to show here in what 
manner they viewed an undertaking which had for 
its object the extermination of slavery by peace- 
ful, lawful, and practical methods, and how they 
treated those who honestly and earnestly gave to 
it their support. The following extracts and quo- 
tations will show their kind of wisdom and power 
of prophecy : 

In the Massachusetts A. A. S. Convention (May, 
1854), Henry C. Wright offered the following reso- 
lution, which was passed : 



REVOLUTION ADVOCATED. 97 

"That should the Government succeed in its present plan to 
abolish the Missouri Compromise, and to throw open all the vast 
public domain to slavery and the slave-trade, we consider that 
the time has fully come for the people to 'practically assert the 
right of revolution." 

Here, in 1854, before the passage of the Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill, we have a very striking specimen of 
what John Quincy Adams called "the plausible 
rascality of Garrison and the Non-resistant Aboli- 
tionists." Years before, they were using what they 
called "moral suasiou," to secure the dissolution of 
the Union. They had said that their appeals were 
to the " moral sense " of the free States. Instead 
of approval, our people, almost without exception, 
gave to such appeals extreme opposition and bitter 
denunciation. Now, however, since these appeals 
had proved a complete failure, the disunionists were 
ready to proclaim open war against the Govern- 
ment. 

Between these two methods there Avas little room 
for choice. Either would have secured the perma- 
nent triumph of the Slave Power, and the utter 
humiliation and subserviency of the North for an 
indefinite period. We are Avell able to judge, since 
the war, whether the General Government had 
power to coerce a State and maintain its own au- 
thority. Both of these proposed methods illustrate 
the statesmanship of the disunionists, who never 
saw any public question in its true light, and who 
never advocated any course of action which would 
not have utterly wrecked all the interests of freedom. 

In defiance, however, of the " revolution " threat- 
5 



98 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

ened by a " handful of despised Abolitionists," con- 
sisting, as Samuel Bowles said, of " indiscreet men 
and unsexed women," the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 
having passed both House and Senate, was signed 
by the President, and became a law on the 30th of 
May, 1864:. The charter of the Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany, which contained the germ of the Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation, had been granted by the Massa- 
chusetts Legislature, and signed by the Governor 
more than a month earlier. 

Without waiting for this legislative action I had 
begun the work of raising the first Kansas colony 
as early as the 1st of April ; but on account of the 
general gloom and despondency, had made but lit- 
tle progress. Though that colony was a very small 
one, numbering only twenty-nine, it required more 
work to secure it than was expended on any half- 
dozen subsequent Kansas companies. My long and 
earnest efforts in New York and Massachusetts 
were rewarded with this apparently insignificant 
result. But however feeble in appearance was this 
beginning, it was the first organized physical resist- 
ance to the power of slavery that this country had 
ever seen. It was the beginning of the end of that 
combination which had ruled us with a rod of iron 
for more than a third of a century. 

The obstacles in the way of the success of this 
" new science of emigration " w^ere many and great. 
First : there was the apathy, gloom, and despair con- 
sequent upon the invariable victory of slavery and 
defeat of freedom in our national legislative halls 
for at least thirty-five 3^ears. 



FEARS OF LOYAL MEX. 99 

Then again it was argued that we would have 
no chance of success in the contest of emigration 
proposed, since we were so far from the field of ac- 
tion, while the slave-holders were in great numbers 
on the very border of Kansas. 

In addition to these difficulties, which seemed to 
many insurmountable, there was the terrible fact 
that all the departments of the Government were 
in the hands of our enemies. This was indeed a 
great calamity, and made our work difficult and 
hazardous. It was a source of great doubt and per- 
plexity among those who were ardently devoted to 
the free-State cause, and was often urged as an un- 
answerable argument against the possibility of its 
ultimate triumph. 

It was expected that the President would appoint 
pro-slavery officers for both Territories, and that all 
the power of the Government would be used, either 
openly or secretly, to injure the free-State cause, 
and to sustain slavery. 

The Is^orthern people had not yet understood 
how much mightier they themselves were than 
Presidents, Congresses, and Cabinets. This great 
fact they were rapidly learning, and soon became 
quite indifferent about what the powers at Wash- 
ington might do, or fail to do. 
^ Such were the arguments of loyal and patriotic 
citizens, who were desirous of our success, and who 
were later among the most active supporters of the 
Emigrant Aid Company. When the great work of 
inspiring faith and hope in hearts where only gloom 
and despair had dwelt had once reached these ob- 



100 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

jectors, they joined in the grand crusade, and either 
went to Kansas themselves or stimulated and aid- 
ed others to go. 

But there was another class, professing intense 
hostility to slavery, who exerted all their power 
to prevent our success ; I mean the Garrison dis- 
unionists, whose " eternal whine " had afflicted the 
country for a quarter of a century, and by utterly 
disgusting all practical patriots, and all political 
parties, had retarded antislavery work, and to a 
great extent suppressed all practical antislavery 
sentiment. These desired that Kansas should be a 
slave State ; and said that if it could be made a 
free State (which they claimed was impossible) " the 
result would be a great injury to true antislavery, 
because it would quiet the Northern conscience 
with an apparent triumph." 

Here are two samples of this "eternal whine." 
Annual statement adopted at the May conven- 
tion of the A. A. S., Massachusetts, 1856 : 

' ' Yet we cannot conceal it from ourselves that the too proba- 
ble result will be, if Kansas be secured to freedom, that the vile 
American spirit of compromise will take possession of its coun- 
sels, control its internal affairs, and govern its intercourse with 
the neighboring slave States; while, as a still more lamentable 
consequence, apathy will settle upon the whole Northern mind, 
satisfied with their seeming victory, but the end of which will 
be only to invite fresh insults and aggressions from the South- 
ern despotism. No! there is no safety as there is no honor and 
no right in our union with mcn-stealers. No advantage gained 
while in that fatal fellowship can be of any value." 

The following, in the same strain as the above, 
is an extract from a sermon of Kev. T. W. Iliggin- 



T. W. niGGINSON. 101 

son, preached in Worcester, in June, 1854, and re- 
corded in the Liberator of June 16th : 

" Here, for instance, is tlie Nebraska Emigration Society: it is, 
indeed, a noble enterprise, and I am proud that it owes its ori- 
gin to a Worcester man ; but where is the good of emigrating to 
Nebraska, if Nebraska is to be only a transplanted Massachu- 
setts, and the original INIassachusetts has been tried and found 
wanting? Will the stream rise higher than its source? Settle 
your Nebraska ten years, and you will have your New England 
harvest of corn and grain more luxuriant in that virgin soil. Ah! 
but will not the other Massachusetts crop come also, of political* 
demagogues and wire-pullers, and a sectarian religion, which 
will insure the passage of the greatest hypocrite to heaven, if he 
will join the right church before he goes? And give the emi- 
grants twenty years more of prosperity, and then ask them, if 
you dare, to break the law, and disturb order, and risk life, 
merely to save their State from the shame that has just blighted 
Massachusetts." 

In reply to these sentimental puerilities let us 
first examine the argument of the "statement," 
and then that of the sermon. The above " state- 
ment " was adopted in 1856, after it had become 
apparent to all intelligent observers that the con- 
test in Kansas was to be decided in favor of free- 
dom, if the same agency which had directed the 
free-State cause up to that time should continue to 
act. The Garrisonites in the above " statement " 
make two points against the free State : 

1st. It will be a compromising State. 

Of course this means, as they had often said, that 
such a State was worse than a slave State. If Kan- 
sas had been left to the tender mercies of the border 
ruffians, as it would have been without the action 
of the Emigrant Aid Company, there would have 



102 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

been (so they believed) an important accession to 
the clisunionists of the North — a number of new 
subscribers for the Liberator^ more patrons of all 
the antislavery bazaars, increased attendance upon 
the annual, semi-annual, and quarterly disunion con- 
ventions ; altogether constituting a pledge of pro- 
gressive anarchy and of ultimate disunion. To 
make Kansas a free State was the ruin of all these 
hopes and aspirations. 

2d. " Apathy will settle upon the whole North- 
ern mind, satisfied with their seeming victory." 

In plain English they meant this: "If Kansas 
should be made a free State everybody will say 
that we, the disunionists, are false prophets, for we 
have said a thousand times that this result could 
not be attained. People will then desert our stand- 
ard instead of flocking to sustain it. More than 
ever the North will adhere to the Union ; for her 
political power Avill be assured for all coming time. 
To this consummation w^e can never assent. No 
union with man-stealers ! No fellowship with them 
can be of any value." This was the a ])Tiori argu- 
ment and prophecy. Has the result vindicated 
their judgment and foresight? Just as much as 
these qualities were vindicated by anything they 
ever said or did in their entire history. No people 
ever had more practice in prophesying than they ; 
but practice brought neither perfection nor profi- 
ciency. 

This sermon of Eev. T. W. Higginson was pub- 
lished in the Liherator thirty-one days before our 
first colony left Boston for Kansas. It must be 



T. W. HIGGINSON ANSWERED. 103 

plain to the intelligent reader that its purpose was 
to prevent our organized emigration to that Terri- 
tory. '-Where is the good," says the reverend 
preacher, " of emigrating to IN'ebraska if E'ebraska 
is to be a transplanted Massachusetts, and the orig- 
inal Massachusetts has been tried and found want- 
ing ?" Was this encouraging talk to the young men 
who were at that very time proposing to join the 
colony then forming ? 

The argument of the reverend gentleman is this : 
The best it is possible for you to do is to make an- 
other State which will be as bad as Massachusetts 
is, and therefore you had better do nothing at all. 
" The stream cannot rise higher than its source ;" 
therefore let Kansas alone. Should you succeed in 
making her free, you will find that in thirty years 
her people will be patriotic and law-abiding in pol- 
itics, and sectarian in religion. To an anarchist 
and come-outer these were insuperable reasons why 
Kansas should be left to the Blue Lodges of Mis- 
souri. 

If made a slave State, the fact might help to fire 
the ISTorthern heart against the Union and make it 
more easy for disunionists to triumph. These are 
fair and just inferences, made without prejudice, 
and warranted by the argument of the sermon and 
the associations of the preacher. 

In the Liberator of February 10, 1855, is a letter 
from its correspondent, C. Stearns, dated Lawrence, 
Kansas, January 20, 1855, in which we find this : 

" It is true we denounce the Emigrant Aid Company, because 
we believe it to be a great hindcrance to tlie cause of freedom, and 



104 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

a mighty curse to the Territory; but we are the only ones who 
have taken a decided ground on the antislavery question. I 
have never heard of the Lawrence Association ever passing any 
antislaver}'- resolutions, 

"Another point of importance is, that this association, with 
Robinson at its head, advocates brute force in opposing the Mis- 
sourians. Said Mr, R, to the marshal, in reference to some Mis- 
sourians arrested for threatening the Yankees, ' If they fire, do 
you make them bite the dust, and I will find coffins,' " 

In a letter one month later, published in the Lib- 
erator of the IGth of March, 1855, the same corre- 
spondent says : 

"Do not advise people to emigrate here in companies. Let 
them come very few at a time. This sending large companies 
is a very foolish business for many reasons." 

In the above extracts, the hatred of the Emigrant 
Aid Company is too apparent to need elucidation. 
The writer assails the very methods of the com- 
pany which gave us success. He objects to our col- 
onies ! What could individual free-State men have 
accomplished in Kansas ? 

The hostile purpose of the following editorial in 
the Liberator of April 13, 1855, is very apparent. 

"Read the articles we have grouped together on our first page, 
illustrative of the demoniacal pro-slavery spirit which rages and 
bears down all opposition in Kansas and Missouri. . . . Beyond 
a doubt the fate of Kansas is sealed. 'No union with slave- 
holders.' " 

At the date of the above quotation our company 
had sent several flourishing colonies to Kansas, 
and it began to be evident that by faithfully ad- 
hering to our " plan of freedom " the entire North 



ABOLITION INTIMIDATION. 105 

would soon be united in our support, insuring our 
success, and making Kansas free. JSTow, if ever, in- 
timidation must be tried to frighten our colonists 
and check the progress of our work. So the Liber- 
ator devotes an entire page to the grouping of all 
the cock-and-bull stories that could be gleaned from 
every quarter. Then, most discouraging of all, Mr. 
Garrison informs us, " Beyond a doubt the fate of 
Kansas is sealed." If he could make our emigrants 
beheve that, it would be the end of emigration. 
But people had begun to see the drift of the dis- 
union talk, and to understand that the owner of 
the Liberator desired that Kansas should be a slave 
State, to give aid and comfort to his pet scheme of 
disunion. The concluding refrain proves this. " No 
union with slave-holders !" 

In another paper Mr. Garrison says, in substance: 
Kansas cannot be made a free State, and even if it 
should be, such a result would be a great injury to 
the antislavery cause, for the reason that it would 
quiet the I^orthern conscience. The following is 
from the Liberator (editorial) of June 1, 1855 : 

"Will Kansas be a free State? We answer No. Not while 
the existing Union stands. Its fate is settled. We shall briefly 
state some of the reasons which force us to this sad conclusion. 

" 1. The South is united in the determination to make Kansas 
a slave State— ultimately, by division, half a dozen slave States, 
if necessary. She has never yet been foiled in her purposes thus 
concentrated and expressed, and she has too much at stake to 
allow free speech, a free press, and free labor, to hold the mas- 
tery in that Territory. 

"2. Eastern emigration will avail nothing to keep slavery out 
of Kansas. We have never had any faith in it as a breakwater 
5" 



106 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

against the inimdation of the dark waters of oppression. Hard- 
ly an Abolitionist can be found among all who have emigrated 
to that countr}'. Undoubtedly the mass of emigrants are in fa- 
vor of making Kansas a free State, as a matter of sound policy, 
and would do so if they were not under the dominion of Mis- 
souri ruffianism, or if they could rely upon the sympathy of the 
General Government in this terrible crisis, but they have not 
gone to Kansas to be martyrs in the cause of the enslaved negro, 
nor to sacrifice their chances for a homestead upon the altar of 
principle, but to find a comfortable home for themselves and 
their children. Before they emigrated they gave little or no 
countenance to the antislavery cause at home; they partook of 
the general hostility or indifference to the labors of radical Abo- 
litionism ; at least they could only dream of making ' freedom 
national and slavery sectional after the manner of the fathers;' 
and they were poisoned more or less with the virus of colorpho- 
bia. If they had no pluck here, what could be rationally ex- 
pected of them in the immediate presence of the demoniacal 
spirit of slavery? They represent the average sentiment of the 
North on this subject — nothing more — and that is still subservi- 
ent to the will of the South. 



"3. The omnipotent power of the General Government will 
co-operate with the vandals of Missouri to crush out what littl'c 
antislavery sentiment may exist in Kansas, and to sustain their 
lawless proceedings in that Territory. This will prove decisive 
in the struggle. 

"4. On the subject of slavery there is no principle in the Kan- 
sas papers ostensibly desirous of making it a free State. Here, 
for instance, is the Herald of Freedom, of May 12th, published 
in Lawrence, which claims to be, and we believe is, the most 
outspoken journal in Kansas in regard to the rights of bona fide 
settlers. What does its editor say? Listen! ' While publish- 
ing a paper in Kansas, we feel that it is not our province to dis- 
cuss the subject of freedom or slavery in the States.' Is not this 
the most heartless inhumanity, the most arrant, moral coward- 
ice, the clearest demonstration of unsoundness of mind? 

" These are some of the reasons why we believe Kansas will 
inevitably be a slave State." 



G. W. BROWN. 107 

The thoughtful reader will not need any com- 
mentary to point out the utter folly and incohe- 
rency of the above editorial of Mr. Garrison. One 
or two points, however, deserve special attention. 
" Hardly an Abolitionist can be found among all 
who have emigrated to that country. . . . They rep- 
resent the average sentiment of the IS'orth." 

At this time there were about twenty thousand 
people in Kansas. Then, according to the estimate 
of Mr. Garrison, there was hardly one Abolitionist 
in twenty thousand Northern people. Here is a 
truthful, though evidently unconscious admission 
that his twenty-five years of vituperation, blasphe- 
my, and anarchy, wath all its work and worry, had 
been futile and useless. 

The other point is the disparaging reference to 
the Herald of Freedom. 

G. W. Brown, from Pennsylvania, established 
that paper in Lawrence in 1854, and maintained it 
as the organ of the free-State cause during the 
Kansas contest. It w^as a most hopeful and hel^D- 
ful agency in the free-State interest. In all my 
journeys to form Kansas Leagues, to organize colo- 
nies, to solicit money for our w^ork, or to combine 
the IS'orthern people of all political parties in the 
determination to make Kansas free, I did not fail to 
carry large packages of these papers. They were of 
vast service to our cause. The Herald of Freedom 
was sent by the Kansas settlers into every county 
and into almost every town of the Northern States. 
It was ever true to the principle and purpose of 
making Kansas a free State. Mr. Garrison and his 



108 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

friends complained because the editor refused to 
enter into controversy upon the general subject of 
slavery in the States, and would not fill his col- 
umns with "resolutions," and complaints about 
blood-hounds, manacles, and auction - blocks. The 
paper was ably conducted, and was of inestimable 
value to the cause in furnishing and disseminating 
information about the Territory, much of which 
was given by the actual settlers. The Emigrant 
Aid Company advanced two thousand dollars to 
aid Dr. Brown in estabhshing this journal, which 
sum he repaid. He knew " Old John Brown " in- 
timately while he was in Kansas, and his reminis- 
cences of that worthy, published a few years since, 
created something of a stampede among the ad- 
mirers of the hero of Harper's Ferry. Dr. Brown 
is now living in Eockford, Illinois, devoting much 
of his time to literary work. He is entitled to the 
gratitude of every lover of freedom for his faithful, 
self-sacrificing, and effective work in Kansas. 

In the Liberator of July 13, 1855, there is the 
following record : 

"Thomas Wentworth Higginson was the next speaker. His 
declaration of his belief in the certainty of the dissolution of 
these States, and of his own readiness for that event, met with 
the general and evidently carefully considered assent of the au- 
dience." 

This is the same Rev. Mr. Higginson from whose 
sermon we have already quoted. 

In perfect accord Avith the generally obstructive 
efforts of the Garrison it es in the Kansas conflict 
and crusade are the following: editorial and an ex- 



GARRISON AND PHILLIPS. 109 

tract from the speech of Wendell Phillips, to be 
found in the Liberator of September 28th, and Au- 
gust 10th, 1855 : 

"Talk about stopping the progress of slavery and of saving 
Nebraska and Kansas! Why, the fate of Nebraska and Kansas 
was sealed the first hour Stephen Arnold Douglas consented to 
play his perfidious part. 

"Why is Kansas a failure as a free State? I will tell you. 
You sent out there some thousand or two thousand men — for 
what? To make a living; to cultivate a hundred and sixty 
acres; to build houses; to send for their wives and children; to 
raise wheat; to make money; to build saw-mills; to plant towns. 
You meant to take possession of the country, as the Yankee 
race always takes possession of a country, by industry, by civili- 
zation, by roads, by houses, by mills, by churches; but it will 
take a long time — it takes two centuries to do it. 

******* 

"The moment you throw the struggle with slavery into the 
half-barbarous West, where things are decided by the revolver 
and bowie-knife, slavery triumphs. . . . 

"What do I care for a squabble around the ballot-box in 
Kansas?" 

These miserable prophetic efforts were intended 
to check and ruin the work of the Emigrant Aid 
Company. On every occasion the Abolitionists 
magnified its dangers and difficulties, so that by 
destroying all faith in the result sought, the work 
itself might soon be suspended. It was far too 
humiliating to be endured, that a new agency 
should enter the antislavery field and achieve suc- 
cess even in its infancy. Something must be done 
to retain in their own hands the great slavery 
question. To this they had given undivided atten- 
tion for more than twenty-five years, and for that 



110 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

reason alone had assumed to be its only author- 
ized and infallible champions. So a church rat, 
having lived in a cathedral a dozen years, nib- 
bling the crumbs of sacramental bread, might claim 
to know more theology than the recently appointed 
bishop. 

As we have just seen, Mr. Phillips said, with char- 
acteristic scorn, "What do I care for a squabble 
around the ballot-box in Kansas?" Fortunately 
there was such a "squabble." It has been proved 
that no such "squabble" would have been but for 
the work of the Emigrant Aid Company. All 
would have been peace, but the peace of freedom's 
death and of slavery's triumph. The people of the 
I^orth did care about this conflict, for they saw in 
it the power commissioned to determine the fate 
of this nation. From this contest it became evi- 
dent that there could never be another slave State 
in this Union. 

Patriots were glad that this trial had come, while 
anarchists and disunionists were sad and disheart- 
ened. This conflict, which, Charles Sumner said, 
" surpassed far in moral grandeur the whole war 
of the Revolution," saved Kansas and the country. 
Is it, then, a fit subject for the ridicule of Garrison- 
ites ? That American is little to be envied who can 
speak lightly of the decisive contest in Kansas be- 
tween the two antagonistic civilizations of this con- 
tinent. Either he does not love his country, or is 
incapable of understanding her history. In this 
contest was involved the welfare of the human race 
more than it had ever been in any other. The bat- 



CHILDREN OF THE "SQUABBLE." Ill 

ties of Marathon and Leuctra were insignificant in 
results when compared with it. So were those of 
Hastings, Bannockburn, Naseby, and a hundred 
others most celebrated in history. Among the 
children of this "squabble" are Sumter, Bull Eun, 
and the Emancipation Proclamation. Of the same 
mother came also Antietam, Gettysburg, and Ap- 
pomattox. The time may come when Bunker Hill 
and Yorktown wiU take a lower place in history. 
These made independent three millions of British 
subjects. That made four millions of slaves into 
freemen, and raised to manhood a still larger num- 
ber of white men whose condition had been more 
pitiable than that of the slaves. The former gave 
us a republic without republicanism, which denied 
our Declaration of Independence by withholding 
equal rights. The latter gave us a true republic, 
with equal rights for all. 

But there is another view to be taken of the 
Kansas fight. Like mercy, it was " twice blessed." 
It blessed both parties to the conflict; and, won- 
derful to relate, the vanquished were a hundred 
times more blessed in their defeat than were the 
victors in their triumph. In the North slavery was 
an appalling shadow, a dark and threatening cloud. 
In the South it was the blackness of darkness, with- 
out one gleam of light. In the North it was only 
a hinderance to prosperity. In the South it was an 
insurmountable obstruction to all enterprise and a 
dead -stop to all progress. So both sections were 
the gainers by its defeat and extinction, but the 
South by far the greater. Look at her now ! 



112 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

the very infancy of her regeneration she has be- 
come in iron manufacture the successful rival of 
Pennsylvania, and, in certain cotton manufactures, 
of the whole North. Capital is now flowing South- 
ward more freely and more copiously than in any 
other direction. As this stream of incoming wealth 
progresses, and capital is also accumulated from her 
profitable investments already made, she will re- 
ceive a great and ever-increasing accession to her 
population by the immigration of white men skilled 
in the mechanic arts. Her charming climate, her 
inexhaustible mines of coal and iron in close prox- 
imity to the needed lime-rock, her cotton, all ready 
for manufacture in her own hands — these are the 
bases of such a future growth and prosperity as 
can nowhere else be found. The race problem, 
about which some good people are fretting, will 
take care of itself, if the South shall now devote 
her energies to the development of her vast treas- 
ures, and enter into a brisk and healthy competi- 
tion in her specialties with all parts of the world. 
In all the heavy manufactures of iron and steel, 
in the making of cotton cloths, and in many other 
mechanical enterprises not yet developed, she can 
take and hold the markets of this continent and 
eventually many others. No country to-day has 
such assuring prospects, and none promises to its 
inhabitants such ample returns for capital and la- 
bor invested. 

The Southern States, as manufacturing centres, 
have a great advantage over Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island, and Connecticut. The net profits to these 



THE NEW SOUTH. 113 

States of their manufactories are greatly reduced 
by the cost of flour, corn, and meat brought from 
the West, and of cotton, wool, iron, and coal from 
other quarters. The South has all these important 
materials in abundance, so that within her own lim- 
its she has the means of feeding and clothing a pop- 
ulation many times larger than she now has, while 
the products of her mines and her cotton furnish a 
basis for exports in manufactured goods and in raw 
materials such as no other country has. The labor- 
ing man can there support himself and his family 
for three-quarters of the sum required for that pur- 
pose in 'New England. These are but a few of the 
facts which give hope and encouragement to the 
new South. 

Her present duty is to push forward with the 
greatest possible vigor her legitimate business pur- 
suits, and to waste no time over the " race prob- 
lem;" to attain, as speedily as she may, to the 
height of her possible destiny in wealth, in popu- 
lation, in education, and power. Her death has be- 
come life through her disappointment in Kansas. 
Her resuri'ection has now come, and the bounding 
pulses of her new life are thrilling all her veins. 
With energy, persistency, and fidelity in using her 
great advantages, she will soon become the wealth- 
iest and most populous part of the Union. This 
result will be the pi^oper settlement of the race 
question. 

We now return to the continued diatribes of the 
disunionists. At a meeting of the American Anti- 
slavery Society in Providence, Rhode Island, Mr. 



114 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Garrison^ as reported in the Liherator of the 2d of 
May, 1856, said : 

"While the Union continues, tbe slave power will have every- 
thing its own wa}"", in the last resort. 

" 'But (they say) we are going to have a glorious victory in 
Kansas.' 

" It is all delusion to suppose that Kansas is safe for freedom. 
We are just too late! We have been betrayed by the General 
Government itself, which is now on the side of ' border ruffian- 
ism!' Slavery is certain to go into Kansas, nay, slaves are now 
carried there daily, and offered for sale with impunity. Even 
the free-State men have voted to let slavery continue in the Ter- 
ritory till the 4th of July next, and that no colored man shall 
be allowed to set his foot upon the soil of Kansas; thus tram- 
pling under foot the Constitution of the United States." 

Here we have another example of the " eternal 
whine." " The slave po^yer will have everything 
its own way." Did this sad prophecy prove true ? 

It had now become apparent that the cause of 
freedom was likely to triumph in Kansas. Even 
the disunionists in their hostile and imbittered 
hearts began to believe it. Observe that while up 
to this time they have always said you when speak- 
ing of the supporters of the Emigrant Aid move- 
ment, they now say %De. " We are just too late." 
What had the disunionists, represented by the 
word " 'w?^," ever done for Kansas, except to oppose 
with all their power the only agency that could 
secure the freedom of that State? It is now a 
little late for the presumptuous claim that "we" 
are champions in the grand crusade of freedom. 
Whenever there was any chance for practical action 
against slavery there was a great lion in the path 



A BIG LION IN THE WAY. 115 

of the Abolitionists. They called him " Peinciple." 
The Liberator of May 16, 1856, contains a speech 
of Samuel May, Jr., in the IST. Y. A. A. S. Conven- 
tion, in which he said that he thought both duty 
and a sound and just expediency utterly forbade 
their identifying themselves, for an instant, with 
the mere nc>:^-extension-of -slavery movement. Es- 
pecially would he protest against their identifying 
themselves, as a society, with the Kansas free-State 
movement, so long as it stood upon its present low 
and compromising level. " We cannot join in the 
present movement for Kansas because it is false in 
principle. That is a sufficient reason why we 
should take no part in it," said he. 

"False in principle!" These Abolitionists re- 
garded all action against slavery as " false in prin- 
ciple " if it did not contemplate the destruction of 
the churches and the overthrow of the Government. 
To such an extent were they dominated by '• prin- 
ciple" that they would not give one dhne for the 
purchase and liberation of all the slaves in the 
country. This method, they had often said, would 
be trafficking in human beings. But they had no 
objection to John Brown's way of murder and rob- 
bery, under the pretence of extending freedom. 
They could not be expected to favor the law-abid- 
ing Emigrant Aid Company, or to restrain their 
admiration and eulogy of John Brown, for disre- 
garding all law and the rights of all men, who dif- 
fered with him in opinion, to life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness. 

The following is from a speech of Wendell 



116 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Phillijis, printed in the Liberator of July 11, 

1856 : 

" Now I have great hopes. I think Fremont will be defeated. 
I think there is great chance that Buchauan will be elected. I 
have no hope for Kansas. How can I have? Where are the 
hundred men who went from Chicago? Why, they went through 
Missouri, and laid down their arms at the feet of a mob! Fifty 
men from the city of Worcester met the same fate. A thousand 
dollars from the town of Concord alone gone into the treasury 
of the Missouri mob ! . . . Fifty per cent, of the muskets bought 
in New England are to-day in the hands of Missourians." 

Here Mr. Phillips plays a jubilee strain upon 
three strings of his fiddle. '' Fremont defeated," 
" Buchanan elected," " Kansas lost." Tlie country 
did not join in this untimely and dislo3^al exulta- 
tion. With greater energy than ever, and fiercer 
determination, the North Avas equal to the exigency 
of the time. The Missouri Kiver had been closed 
to our emigrants, Lawrence had been sacked by 
border ruffians, United States troops held as pris- 
oners many of the free-State leaders. This was the 
time for Garrison and Phillips to sing hallelujahs ! 

The following is from the diary of Amos A. 
Lawrence (Life by his son, page 105) : 

"Nov. 5t7i, 1856. — Went with Governor Robinson and Sen- 
ator Henry Wilson to a private meeting of about twenty Kansas 
men to decide what shall be done if Buchanan is elected. Rev. 
Mr. Higginson advocated resistance to the Government. Mr. 
Wilson spoke against that doctrine very decidedly; so did I." 

The Garrison Abolitionists having failed to de- 
stroy, or even to impede, the work of the Emigrant 
Aid Company in colonizing Kansas, and the bor- 



THE PROPHET OF ANARCHY. 117 

der ruffians also having achieved no success in the 
same purpose, by their acts of lawless invasion, 
outrage, and intimidation, they unitedly sought to 
destroy the results of our victory by inducing the 
free-State men to fight the United States troops. 
James H. Lane had expressed this purpose in Ohio, 
in his speeches during the summer. Kev. Mr. Hig- 
ginson had just returned from a conference with 
Lane, and was urging Lane's methods. Every one 
must see that the plan proposed would have been 
complete ruin to the free-State cause. But Charles 
Eobinson and the Emigrant Aid Company averted 
this danger. 

Here is the last shot from the anarchists, in a 
speech of Wendell Phillips, printed in the Liberator 
of August 14, 1857 : 

"But Kansas— her battle will not be fought in the West, but 
on the chess-board at V\rashington, and in midnight session she 
will be betrayed. This administration will see Kansas, possibly 
Oregon and Nebraska, possibly the southern half of California 
—admitted as slave States; and then, with four or six more votes 
in the Senate, with the prestige of success, how will you meet 
another Presidential election?" 

Turn back a few pages and you find Mr. PhilHps 
saying, " When you throw the struggle with slavery 
into the half -barbarous West, where things are de- 
cided by the bowie-knife and revolver, slavery tri- 
umphs." All that had been done and slavery had 
been defeated. But now all our success in Kansas 
is to count for nothing, since the battle is to be 
" fought on the chess-board at Washington." The 
prophet of evil still adheres to his original idea that 



118 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Kansas shall be a slave State by some means. This, 
like all his other prophecies, proved to be entirely 
fallacious. From this time forward his course, as 
Roosevelt says, " was either mischievous or ridicu- 
lous, and sometimes both." 

But the Emigrant Aid Company had able defend- 
ers as well as violent assailants. Charles Sumner, 
on the 19th of May, 1856, in his speech " The Crime 
against Kansas," made an elaborate and eloquent 
eulogy of this company and of the State which 
gave it life. 

We quote as follows : 

"It only remains, under this head, that I should speak of the 
apology infamous, founded on false testimony against the Emi- 
grant Aid Company, and assumptions of duty more false than 
the testimony. Defying truth and mocking decency, this apol- 
ogy excels all others in futility and audacity, while, from its utter 
hollowuess, it proves the utter impotence of the conspirators to 
defend their crime. Falsehood, always infamous, in this case 
arouses peculiar scorn. An association of sincere henevolence, 
faithful to the Constitution and laws, whose only fortifications 
are hotels, school-houses, and churches; whose only weapons are 
saw-mills, tools, and books; whose mission is peace and good- 
will, has been falsely assailed on this floor, and an errand of 
blameless virtue has been made the pretext for an unpardonable 
crime. Nay, more — the innocent are sacrificed, and the guilty 
set at liberty. They who seek to do the mission of the Saviour 
are scourged and crucified, while the murderer, Barabbas, with 
the sympathy of the chief priests, goes at large. 

***-,(• * * * 

" Sir, it has not the honor of being an abolition society, or of 
numbering among its oflicers Abolitionists. Its president is a 
retired citizen, of ample means and charitable life, who has taken 
no part in the conflicts on slavery, and has never allowed his 
sympathies to be felt by Abolitionists. One of its vice-presi- 
dents is a gentleman from Virginia, with family and friends 



SUMNER'S EULOGY. 119 

there, who has always opposed the Abolitionists. Its generous 
treasurer, who is now justly absorbed by the objects of the com- 
pany, has always been understood as ranging with his extensive 
connections, by blood and marriage, on the side of that quietism 
which submits to all the tyranny of the slave power. Its direct- 
ors are more conspicuous for wealth and science than for any 
activity against slavery. Among these is an eminent lawyer of 
Massachusetts, Mr. Chapman — personally known, doubtless, to 
some who hear me — who has distinguished himself by an austere 
conservatism, too natural to the atmosphere of courts, which 
does not flinch even from the support of the Fugitive Slave Bill. 
In a recent address at a public meeting in Springfield, this gen- 
tleman thus speaks for himself and his associates: 

" ' I have been a director of the society from the first, and 
have kept myself well informed in regard to its proceedings. I 
am not aware that any one in this community ever suspected me 
of being an Abolitionist; but I have been accused of being pro- 
slavery; and I believe many good people think I am quite too 
conservative on that subject. I take this occasion to say that all 
the plans and proceedings of the society have met my approba- 
tion; and I assert that it has never done a single act with which 
any political party, or the people of any section of the country, 
can justly find fault. The name of its president, Mr. Brown, of 
Providence, and of its treasurer, Mr. Lawrence, of Boston, are a 
sufficient guarantee in the estimation of intelligent men against 
its being engaged in any fanatical enterprise. Its stockholders 
are composed of men of all political parties except Abolitionists. 
I am not aware that it has received the patronage of that class of 
our fellow-citizens, and I am informed that some of them disap- 
prove of its proceedings.' 

"The acts of the company have been such as might be ex- 
pected from auspices thus severely careful at all points. The 
secret through which, with small means, it has been able to ac- 
complish so much is that, as an inducement to emigration, it has 
gone foricard and planted capital in advance of population. Ac- 
cording to the old immethodical system, this rule is reversed; 
and population has been left to grope blindly, without the ad- 
vantage of fixed centres, with mills, schools, and churches — all 
calculated to soften the hardships of pioneer life— such as have 
been established beforehand in Kansas. Here, sir, is the secret 
of the Emigrant Aid Company. By this single principle, which 
is now practically applied for the first time in history, and which 



120 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Las the simplicity of geuius, a business association at a distance, 
without a large capital, has become a beneficent instrument of 
civilization, exercising the functions of various societies, and in 
itself being a Missionary Society, a Bible Society, a Tract Socie- 
ty, an Education Society, and a Society for the Diffusion of the 
Mechanic Arts. I would not claim too much for this company; 
but I doubt if, at this moment, there is any society which is so 
completely philanthropic; and since its leading idea, like the 
light of a caudle from which other candles arc lighted without 
number, may be applied indefinitely, it promises to be an im- 
portant aid to human progress. 

•» * -x- * * * * 

"But since a great right has been denied, the children of the 
free States, over whose cradles has shone the north-star, owe it 
to themselves, to their ancestors, and to freedom itself, that this 
right should now be asserted to the fullest extent. By the bless- 
ing of God, and under the continued protection of the laws, they 
will go to Kansas, there to plant their homes, in the hope of ele- 
vating this Territory soon into the sisterhood of free States; and 
to such end they will not hesitate, in the emplo3^ment of all le- 
gitimate means, whether by companies of men or contributions 
of money, to swell a virtuous emigration, and they will justly 
scout any attempt to question this unquestionable right. Sir, if 
they failed to do this, they would be fit only for slaves them- 
selves. 

" God be praised ! Massachusetts, honored commonwealth that 
gives me the privilege to plead for Kansas on this floor, knows 
her rights, and will maintain them firmly to the end. This is 
not the first time in history that her public acts have been ar- 
raigned, and that her public men have been exposed to contume. 
ly. Thus was it when, in the olden time, she began the great 
'*:c.Vde whose fruits you all enjoy. But never yet has she occu- 
pied a position so lofty as at this hour. By the intelligence of 
her population — by the resources of her industrj' — by her com- 
merce, cleaving every wave — by her manufactures, various as 
human skill — by her institutions of education, various as human 
knowledge — by her institutions of benevolence, various as hu- 
man suffering — by the pages of her scholars and historians — by 
the voices of her poets and orators, she is now exerting an influ- 
ence more subtle and commanding than ever before— shootiug 



MASSACHUSETTS. 121 

her far-dartiug rays wherever ignorance, wretchedness, or wrong 
prevail, and flashing light upon those who travel far to persecute 
her. 

"Such is Massachusetts, and I am proud to believe that you 
may as well attempt, with puny arm, to topple down the earth- 
rooted, heaven-kissing granite which crowns the historic sod of 
Bunker Hill, as to change her fixed resolves for freedom every- 
where, and especially now for freedom in Kansas. I exult, too, 
that in this hattle, which surpasses far in moral grandeur the 
whole war of the Revolution, she is able to preserve her just em- 
inence. To the first she contributed a larger number of troops 
than any other State in the Union, and larger than all the slave 
States together; and now to the second, which is not of contend- 
ing armies but of contending opinions, on whose issue hangs 
trembling the advancing civilization of the country, she contrib- 
utes through the manifold and endless intellectual activity of her 
children, more of that divine spark by which opinions are quick- 
ened into life, than is contributed by any other State, or by all 
the slave States together, while her annual productive industry 
excels in value three times the whole vaunted cotton crop of the 
whole South. 

" Sir, to men on earth it belongs only to deserve success, not 
to secure it; and I know not how soon the efforts of Massachu- 
setts will wear the crown of triumph. But it cannot be that she 
acts wrong for herself or her children when in this cause she 
thus encounters reproach. No; by the generous souls who were 
exposed at Lexington; by those who stood arrayed on Bunker 
Hill ; by the many from her bosom who, on all the fields of the 
first great struggle, lent their vigorous arms to the cause of all; 
by the children she has borne whose names are national trophies, 
is Massachusetts now vowed irrevocably to this work. What 
belongs to the faithful servant she will do in all things, and Prov- 
idence shall determine the result." 

The only Southern authority approving of the 
plan and operations of the Emigrant Aid Company 
was furnished by De Bozo's Reinew of March, 1858, 
as follows : 
G 



123 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

"We of the South have been practising 'Organized Emigra- 
tion' for a century, and hence have outstripped the North in tlie 
acquisition of land. The owner of a hundred slaves, who, with 
liis overseer, moves to the West, carries out a self-supporting, 
self-insuring, well organized community. This is the sort of 
' Organized Emigration ' which experience shows suits the South 
and the negro race, while Mr. Thayer's is equally well adapted 
to the w^hites, " 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE CnUKCHES AND THE CRUSADE. 

Pending the discussion in Congress of the pro- 
posed repeal of the Missouri Compromise, three 
thousand and fifty of the loyal and patriotic cler- 
gymen of New England sent the following protest 
to the United States Senate : 

" To the Honorable the Senate and House of Bepresentatives in 
Congress assembled : 

" The undersigned, clergymen of different religious denomi- 
nations in New England, hereby, in the name of Almighty God, 
and in his presence, do solemnly protest against the passage of 
what is known as the Nebraska Bill, or any repeal or modifica- 
tion of the existing legal prohibitions of slavery in that part of 
our national domain which it is proposed to organize into the 
Territories of Nebraska and Kansas. Yf e protest against it as a 
great moral wrong, as a breach of faith, eminently unjust to the 
moral principles of the community, and subversive of all confi- 
dence in national engagements; as a measure full of danger to 
the peace and even the existence of our beloved Union, and ex- 
posing us to the righteous judgments of the Almighty; and your 
protestants, as in duty bound, will ever pray. 

" Boston, Mabsaohusktts, March 1, 1854." 

Several other similar protests from clergymen in 
other parts of the Northern States were presented 
to the same august body before the passage of the 
bill. These Avorthy men, exercising the right of 
petition which belongs to every American citizen, 



134 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

were grossly abused by some of the Senators, while 
they were bravely and ably defended by others. 

The influence of this action of the clergy and its 
rebuke by the Senate resulted in the creation of a 
mighty factor in aid of the Emigrant Aid Compa- 
ny, in securing freedom to Kansas, and in the de- 
struction of slavery. In fact, the earliest reliance 
of our company was upon these clergymen and 
their churches. There was no political antislavery 
party which had any power to aid our organized 
emigration or to protect the rights of our emigrants. 
The Free-soil party had then dwindled to almost 
nothing. Its members, whether in or out of Con- 
gress, were hopeless as well as helpless. The one 
central principle of the party — the exclusion of 
slavery from the Territories by law of Congress — 
was utterly destroyed and put beyond any hope of 
revival by opening Kansas and Nebraska to slavery. 
This was a time of general gloom and despair in 
the free States. Their only hope was based upon 
the " plan of freedom " adopted by the New Eng- 
land Emigrant Aid Company. Among the first 
to recognize the power and possibilities of that 
plan were these protesting clergymen. Indeed, 
the very first man to express confidence in its 
success, and his own readiness to work for it with 
aU his might, Avas Hev. Edward Everett Hale, 
one of the signers of the protest. True to his 
pledge, lie immediately began to write a book mi- 
nutely describing the Territories of Kansas and Ne- 
braska, showing their m.any attractions, the way to 
reach them, and enumerating the Emigrant Aid 



EDWARD EVERETT HALE. 125 

companies already formed. This was really a 
hand-book for emigrants, and was of very great 
service in our efforts to arouse the public to the 
importance of organized emigration. But the emi- 
nent services of Mr. Hale's pen, whether in books 
or newspapers, were but a fraction of his Kansas 
work. At the time of the great crusade he was 
pastor of a church in Y/'orcester. Whenever I was 
unable to meet all my appointments, it was my cus- 
tom to apply to this self-sacrificing divine. He 
never disappointed me. He seemed never to think 
of himself until he had thought of everybody else. 
With characteristic energy and fidelity he proceed- 
ed to unite the E"orthern clergy and their churches 
in support of our Boston company in 1855, after 
we had shown our power in Kansas and had made 
it evident that, v/ith proper effort on the part of 
the North, the freedom of that Territory would be 
assured. In this way many of the clergy became 
life-members of our company and were our stanch 
friends and supporters. In all my lecturing tours 
for uniting the people of the free States in the great 
work of securing freedom to Kansas, I found them 
invaluable aids. Their churches were everywhere 
open for my meetings, and almost without exception 
they reinforced my arguments with appropriate 
and effective appeals for patriotism and freedom. 

Though instances were numerous in which the 
clergymen made impressive appeals to their congre- 
gations in favor of our cause, I now recall one which 
may serve to illustrate my meaning, and prove the 
patriotism of these heroic and self-sacrificing men. 



126 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

I was advertised to speak in the clinrch of a 
small town at the foot of the mountains in Ver- 
mont, in the winter of 1854-55. Having spoken 
the night before in a town some fifty miles distant, 
I started by railroad early the next day to meet my 
evening appointment. There was a drifting snow- 
storm of unusual severity during the forenoon, and 
our train having been blocked for several hours, I 
did not reach the meeting until it had been assem- 
bled half an hour. The church was well filled and 
I spoke for two hours. There was intense interest 
manifested throughout my remarks. After I had 
concluded, the venerable pastor arose and made one 
of the most stirring appeals for Kansas that I had 
ever heard. I remember now, thirty -four years 
later, the closing words of the patriarch. Address- 
ing the young men, he said : " My sons, you have 
sometimes come to me to ask my advice concern- 
ing your future course of action. You have asked 
me if it would not be well for you to go to Boston 
or New York to become clerks or salesmen, or to 
engage in business for yourselves. I have replied 
that I thought you better oif here. But novr the 
time has come when I should be false to my sense 
of duty if I urged you to remain here longer. ]^ow 
your country and all the great interests of civiliza- 
tion and human freedom call upon you to leave the 
green hills of your native State and join in the 
grand crusade to stop the progress of slavery. Go, 
my sons, and do not fear for me or for your parents, 
who must remain at home. God will provide for 
us. On yonder rocky farm upon the hill-side these 



A TYPICAL PATRIARCH. 127 

hands have earned one-half of my support for many 
years. The other half has been furnished me by 
yourselves and your fathers. Your leaving will in- 
crease our burdens ; but these burdens will be light- 
ened by the sense of having done our duty. I have 
always been intensely antislavery, though I have 
never failed to vote the Whig ticket. It has been 
a matter of faith with me that God would open a 
way for decisive action on this great issue. This 
time has now come, in His providence, when we 
must show whether we are worthy of freedom, or 
whether we are only fit to be slaves. Go, my sons, 
and do your duty, and may the God of our fathers 
bless you !" 

In response to this eloquent appeal half a dozen 
young men joined our Kansas colonies. It w^as to 
clergymen of this character and their churches that 
the Garrison disunionists gave every hard name in 
their copious vocabulary. 

In the Liberator of May 16, 1856 (twenty-third 
anniversary of the A. A. Society, New York City), 
Mr. Garrison offered, among other resolutions, these, 
which were unanimously passed : 

''Resolved: That (making all due allowance for exceptional 
cases) the American Church continues to be the bulwark of 
slavery, and therefore impure in heart, hypocritical in profession, 
dishonest in practice, brutal in spirit, merciless in purpose—' A 
cage of unclean birds' and 'The synagogue of Satan.' 

''Resolved: That such a church is, in the graphic language of 
Scripture, ' A cage of unclean birds ' and the ' Synagogue of Satan,* 
and that such religious teachers are ' Wolves in sheep's clothing,' 
' Watchmen that are blind,' ' Shepherds that cannot understand,' 
' That all look to their own way, every one to his gain from his 
quarter.' " 



128 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

In the files of the Liberator there are hundreds 
of other resolutions similar to the above in spirit 
and purpose. Among these " unclean birds " may 
be mentioned the venerable Eliphalet ]N"ott, Francis 
Wayland, Lyman Beecher, Henry Ward Beecher, 
Leonard Bacon, Horace Bushnell, Edward Everett 
Hale, T. Starr King, and the other three thousand 
and fifty who signed the famous protest against 
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 

But these resolution -builders were not content 
with efforts to destroy the clergymen and the 
churches over which they presided. They also 
aimed their vindictive shafts at all the missionary, 
charitable, and educational societies which Christian 
philanthropy had founded and sustained. The fol- 
lowing extract from an editorial in a New York re- 
ligious paper contains one out of hundreds of like 
import to be found in their records : 

New Yorlc Observer^ May, 1855 : 

"A CLEAN SWEEP. 

"At a meeting of the American Antislavcry Society held last 
•week in this city, the following resolution was supported by Mr. 
Garrison from the Business Committee, and discussed, and, we 
presume, was unanimously adopted. If there is anything else in 
heaven or earth which these fanatics are disposed to denounce, 
it would be gratifying to know what and where it is: 

" 'Resolved: That the following religious organizations, viz., 
the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 
the American Home Missionary Society, the American Bible So- 
ciety, the American Bible Union, the American Tract Society, 
the American Sunday School Union, the American and Foreign 
Christian Union, the American and Foreign Bible Society, the 
American Baptist Publication Society, the American Baptist Mis- 
sionary Union, the American Baptist Home Mission Society, 



NEW YORK OBSERVER. 129 

the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, tlie Missionary So- 
cieties of the Protestant Metliodists, Episcopal Methodists, Prot- 
estant Episcopal, and Moravian bodies, respectively, being in 
league and fellowsliip ^ith the slave-holders of the South, utterly 
dumb in regard to the slave system, and inflexibly hostile to the 
antislavery movement, are not only wholly undeserving of any 
pecuniary aid or public countenance at the North, but cannot be 
supported without conniving at all the wrongs and outrages by 
which chattel slavery is characterized, and therefo^-e ought to be 
instantly abandoned by every one claiming to be the friend of 
liberty and a disciple of Christ the Redeemer.' 

"This resolution is submitted and supported by a man publish- 
ing a newspaper, in which he allows such blasphemy to be pub- 
lished from week to week as makes the blood run cold to read. 
In a recent number one of his correspondents says: ' If God has 
the power to abolish slavery and does not, he is a very scoundrel.' 
From this we infer readily that there is no God at all. 

"We suppose that among all the supporters of the resolution we 
have copied above there are very few who believe in the exist- 
ence of the God of the Bible. The society which they represent 
is now the only American antislavery society having any vitality 
whatever. In thus planting itself in defiant opposition to the 
entire body of Christian philanthropists in the United States, and 
boldly proclaiming its hostility to the Church and to all the in- 
stitutions of Christian benevolence, it discloses its true character 
and reveals the natural result of unregulated and unscriptural 
measures of reform. . . . Strike out of being the societies enu- 
merated in the damnatory resolution given above, and what 
would be left in the matter of philanthropy and benevolence? 
Separate the clergy from the asylums and other charitable houses 
of relief for the poor and distressed, and how long would they 
be sustained? Infidelity makes a great outcry about its philan- 
thropy, but religion does the work. " 



One of the most effective details of the organ- 
ization of the company was the system of life- 
membership for clergymen. It will be readily 
comprehended from the following circular, sent 
by a committee of clergymen to their brethren: 
6^- 



130 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 



EDUCATION, TEMPERANCE, FREEDOM, RELIGION 
IN KANSAS. 

Dear Sir: We are engaged in an effort to have all the 
"clergymen of New England," made life members of the New 
England Emigrant Aid Company. 

By insuring thus their cooperation in the direction of this 
Company, and by enlarging its funds at this period of its high- 
est usefulness, we are satistied that the Christians of New Eng- 
land will bring to bear a stronger influence in sustaining the prin- 
ciples of what was last 3'ear called the "Ministers' Memorial," 
than by any other means which Providence puts in their hands. 

We ask such cooperation as you can give us; supposing that 
you may have been one of those 3,050 ministers, w-ho in the Sen- 
ate of the United States were pronounced to " know nothing of 
the facts, laws and votes involved in the Nebraska bill," and to 
have "no time to understand them." We are certain that you 
belong to that body of Northern ministers who have been pro- 
hibited from entering northwestern Missouri or Kansas, by those 
mobs of men who have attempted to take the law of that region 
into their own hands. 

We beg your attention to the great work the New England 
Emigrant Aid Company has in hand. We ask your particular 
attention to the encouragement which divine Providence has 
given to its efforts. We beg you to observe all the facts in the 
case, before you give way to the false and discouraging impres- 
sions, assiduously circulated since the pretended election in Kan- 
sas, of March 30, which was the work, simply, of an invading 
army. You may rely on the following statements of the work 
of the Emigrant Aid Company, since it was established: 

1. For Freedom. — It has assisted in establishing at command- 
ing points the towns of Lawrence, Topeka, Osawatomie, Boston, 
Hampden, and Wabounse. In some of these towns it has mills 
— in most of them some investment of value to the settlers. 
These towns are all peopled by "Free-State men," whose whole 
influence goes to make Kansas free. There are other towns al- 
ready started of similar character. The only " Slave-State" town 
of commanding influence in Kansas is Leavenworth, on the Mis- 
souri frontier, separated from the other settled parts of the Ter- 
ritory by Indian reservations. We may say, therefore, that all 
the most important centers of influence have been established or 



APPEAL OF THE CLERGY. 131 

assisted by the Emigrant Aid Company, and that their influence 
tells for the cause of Freedom. This Company has, in fact, di- 
rectly transported between two and three thousand emigrants 
to Kansas. Not one man of them is known to have ever given 
a " Slave-State" vote. More than ten thousand, from free States 
of the Northwest, have been led there by its indirect influence 
here. To prevent the return of this tide, and to provide those 
who go with the assistance which capital only can provide, this 
Company wishes to supply saw-mills at important points, and 
other conveniences. For such purposes will it use any enlarge- 
ment of its funds. The emigration is still very large; and wher- 
ever this Company can establish a saw-mill, with other conven- 
iences, a "Free-State" town can be gathered. From the best 
sources of information, from the officers of the Company, and 
well-informed persons in Kansas and Missouri, we are convinced, 
as the result of wiiat has been done, that the great proportion of 
settlers now in Kansas wish it to become a free State. At the 
election held on the 22d ult., to fill vacancies in the Legislature, 
nine "Free-State" members were chosen, and only three " Slave- 
State" members— the last in Leavenworth, which is separated by 
a ferry only from Missouri. 

2. For Beligion.— The oflacers of this Company have under- 
stood that, to make a free State, they needed, first of all, the Gos- 
pel. Every missionary sent there by different boards has received 
their active assistance. Divine service is regularly maintained 
in the towns where the company has influence, and, we believe, 
nowhere else. Every Sabbath school in the Territory has been 
formed with the assistance of the Company, or its officers. Every 
church organized has been organized with their cooperation. 

3. Foj' Education. — Schools will be in operation at Lawrence, 
at Topeka, at Osawatomie and Hampden before the end of July. 
These, which are the only schools in the Territory of which we 
have any account, are due to the exertions of the New England 
Emigrant Aid Company and its officers. 

4. For Temperance. — The traffic in intoxicating liquors scarce- 
ly exists in any one of the towns founded with the Company's 
assistance, and any attempt to introduce it will be resisted by 
their citizens. This prohibition, intended in the first instance 
for the benefit of the towns, will approve itself to you as the 
only hope for the Indians still remaining in that Territory. 



132 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Such has been the work of this Company in one year. To 
carry further such operations in these towns, and to plant more 
towns at once in Kansas, so as to secure its future destiny before 
next January, the Company needs $150,000. We think it highly 
desirable that that sura shall be furnished by those who will con- 
tinue to the Company the Christian direction which has always 
guided it. We address this statement of facts, therefore, to every 
clergyman in New England, asking for it their careful attention. 
For each of those gentlemen we hope to obtain a single share in 
the stock of the Company, entitling him to vote at its annual 
meetings. He will thus be made a life member of the Company. 

If it be in your power to obtain, at once, a subscription of 
twenty dollars, that sum will purchase a share for you, which 
will be at once taken in your name. For the shares not thus 
taken, we shall at once set on foot a subscription through New 
England, and take the shares in the name of the remaining cler- 
gymen. To this subscription we ask your assistance, if you and 
your friends are willing to subscribe less than twenty dollars, or 
more. It is desirable that this subscription be made at once, and 
we rely on some answer from you at your earliest convenience — 
if possible, before the loth of July. A stamped envelope, al- 
ready directed to one of our Secretaries, will be found within. 

It is proper to state that the New England Emigrant Aid 
Company is incorporated by the Legislature of Massachusetts, 
and that no stockholder is liable, in any event, for anything be- 
yond his first investment. Subscriptions of any amount will be 
at once acknowledged in the papers of Boston. This plan has 
been so favorably received before its general publication, that we 
believe the requisite number of shares will be readily subscribed 
for. The Essex South Conference of churches has provided, it 
is understood, for the shares of all its members. The Worcester 
Association has undertaken to make up the shares of all its mem- 
bers. From clergymen of all parts of New England we have 
assurances of sympathy and cooperation. 

Yours, in Christian fellowship, 

(Signed) Lyman Beecheii, 

Baron Stow, Rowe-st. Baptist Church, 
Charles Lowell, West Church, Boston, 
S. Streeter, Pastor of First Universalist Church, 
Committee on the Ministers'' Memorial r)/1854. 



NAMES AND LETTERS. 133 

W. E. Rice, Pastor of M. E. Church, Bromjkld Street, Boston. 

John H. Twombly, Pastor of 31. E. Church, Hanover Street, Boston. 

Edward Beecher, Pastor of Salem-st. Church, Boston. 

T. Starr King, Pastor of Ilollis-st. Church, Boston. 

John S. Stone, BrooJdine. 

IIosEA Ballou, 2d, President of Tufts ColUge, Mcdford. 

Calvin E. Stowe, Andover. 

Leonard Bacon, Neio Haven. 

Joel Hawes, First Church, Hartford. 

IIoRACE Bushnell, North Church, Hartford. 

Edward E. Hale, Worcester, ^ 

H. Llncoln Watland, Worcester, I g^creiaries. 
John G. Adams, Worcester, f 

Franklin Rand, Boston, -* 

Juhj 2, 1855. 

LETTERS OF CLERGYMEN. 

FROM REV. HORACE JAMES. 

WORCESTEE, Julij 23<i, 1855. 

Rev. Dr. Clarke. 

Dear Brother,— Thus do the people of my Society respond 
to your appeal in behalf of Temperance, Freedom, and Religion 
in Kansas : we have made our collection, and to the result ! 
779 "bits" in a hag! The whole congregation desired to par- 
ticipate in the effort, and therefore we limited them to three- 
cent contributions. And here they are, one for each man, each 
woman, and each child that happened to be at church on the 
afternoon of yesterday. The result, as you may well suppose, 
gratifies me hugely. You should have seen the zeal with which 
they did it. Never did fingers and thumbs move more nimbly 
in the performance of any good work. Verily, there is hope for 
Kansas, when multitudes are thus interested in its welfare. To 
be sure, $23.37 is a small sum; and yet it is no little matter 
that Kansas should thus be connected with the sympathy and 
interest, and, I hope, the prayers of seven hundred and seventy- 
nine individuals of my flock. I send, personally, with every 
coin in the bag, a hearty prayer for the prosperity of your noble 
enterprise. 
So now that we have made our contribution, please forward 



134 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

your certificate of stock, for we intend to have it framed and 
hung up in a conspicuous place in my study, to be exhibited to 
our friends, with exultation, after Kansas is a free State. 
Yours very truly, Horace James, 

Pastor of First Church in Worcester. 

P.S. — Please credit to us the excess, $3.37, on another life- 
membership, which we will make up, if it be needful, in another 
way. H. J. 

FROM REV. CHARLES WALKER. 

PiTTSFOED, Vt., Aug. 2, '55. 

Committee of the N. E. Emigrant Aid Co. 

Gentlemen, — I inclose twenty dollars, which some individu- 
als among my people have helped me to make up, for the pur- 
pose of obtaining for me a share in your Company. 

In addition to this little pecuniary aid, be assured you have 
my sympathy and prayers in behalf of your enterprise, in this 
dark day, when not only the whole force of the slaveholding 
interest, but all the energies of " the powers that be," are arrayed 
against you. May God prosper the right. 

Yours very truly, Chas. Walker. 

FROM PROF. THOMAS C. UPHAM. 

Bbcnswiok, Me., August 29, 1S55. 
T. P. Blanchard, Esq. 

Dear Sir, — I send with this sixty dollars, to be credited as 
follows: Prof. Alpheus S. Packard, $20 ; Prof. William Smith, 
$20; Thomas C. Upham, $20— for the N. E. Emigrant Aid Soci- 
ety for Kansas. 

Please send receipts or certificates of membership in the Soci- 
ety at the earliest moment. I hope to send something more 
soon. I have a deep feeling that Kansas ought to be and must 
be saved, cost what it will. Very sincerely yours, 

Thomas C. Upham. 

from rev. s. b. morley. 

Attlebouo, August 30, 1855. 

Rev. Dr. Clark,— I send to you to-day, by express, $26.25, be- 
ing the sum, and more, which you requested of us in your recent 
circular in behalf of the New England Emigrant Aid Society. 
We have, both pastor and people, contributed to this object with 



LETTERS AND DONATIONS. 135 

the most hearty good-will, and our prayers go with the money. 
We abhor slavery, not for its occasional atrocities merely, but for 
its inherent, systematic wickedness, its unblushing repugnance to 
God's law, its impious assumption of unlimited power over men 
and women. 

May the men whom your Society send to Kansas be true men, 
feel their responsibilities, be strong in the Lord, and plant there, 
never to be plucked up, the institutions of freedom. 

S. B. MORLEY. 

FROM REV. W. C. JACKSON. 

Lincoln, Mass., Sept. 12, 1S55. 

Rev. J. S. Clark, D.D. 

Dear Sir,— Your circular for the Emigrant Aid Society came 
rather inopportunely for us farmers; I refer to the season of the 
year. We have raised the inclosed fifteen dollars by contribu- 
tion. I hope the remainder will be made up. 

We are all awake to the struggle in Kansas. We say, " Go on 
with your work of emigration. Be not weary in well-doing." 
Let us pour such an antislavery element into that swelling pop- 
ulation that whatever political success slavery may obtain there, 
the very atmosphere shall be pestilential to it ; yea, that it shall 
feel, as it grows up, a fire burning in its very vitals, and destined 
speedily to consume it. Sincerely yours, 

W. 0. Jackson. 

FROM REV. E. N. HIDDEN. 

Mii.FOUD, N. II., Aug. 15, 1S55. 

Rev. and Dear Sir,— Inclosed you will find twenty dollars, 
a contribution from the Congregational Church and Society in 
Milford, N. H., to the New England Emigration Aid Society, 
to constitute their pastor, Rev. E. N. Hidden, a life member. 

Being one of the "3,050" who sent our memorial doicn to 
Congress against the introduction of slavery into Kansas and 
Nebraska, but which they basely spurned, it is very gratifying 
to me now to know that the alms and the prayers of the people 
are going up as a memorial before God against the same evil. 
The one-dollar bill with the writing on the back was put into 
the contribution as it is. Please acknowledge this in the Puri- 
tan Recorder, that I may know of its safe passage. 

Yours truly, E. N. Hidden. 



136 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

This letter has the following indorsement: "On the back of 
one of the bills inclosed was as follows: 'No slavery in Kansas 
or Nebraska! Down with the slavery extensionists and dough- 
faces! Hurrah for free schools, free labor, free men, and free 
soil!' " 

The clergymen of the free States, with their con- 
gregations, were (as a rule), practically, Kansas 
Leagues, stimulating patriotic zeal, and constantly 
furnishing reliable reinforcements to the well-disci- 
plined army of freemen who marched to the field 
of conflict under the guidance and protection of 
the Emigrant Aid companies. Let them be re- 
membered with honor and gratitude.* 

* The letters above quoted arc specimens of hundreds— per- 
haps thousands— received by the company. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE NORTHEEN DISUNIONISTS. 

The sentimental agency professedly hostile to 
slavery established and led by "William Lloyd Gar- 
rison was older than the poHtical organization 
known as the Free-soil Party, though really infe- 
rior to it both in numbers and influence. Their 
purposes were entirely different, and their plans 
had nothing in common. Garrison called himself 
an " immediativist." He demanded the immediate 
extinction of slavery, without any compensation to 
the owners of slaves. This was his pohcy in the 
earlier days of the Liberator. In a few years, how- 
ever, he had found so httle response favorable to 
these vievrs that he relinquished them for the rally- 
ing cry of " Disunion." From this time to the end 
of his work he contended that " disunion was the 
corner-stone of all true antislavery." The follow- 
ing resolutions express the extreme views of the 
Garrisonites, now greatly reduced in numbers by 
the secession of their ablest and best men to form 
the "Liberty Party." A history of the quarrel 
between these two sections can be found in the 
Liberator and the Liberty Party Almanac. John 
G. Palfrey and his friends could not subscribe to 
the ruinous doctrines of anarchy and disunion. 



138 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

They therefore vrithdrew from Garrison, and took 
with them the most patriotic and influential of his 
followers. All salutary restraint having been re- 
moved, the fanatics gave vent to their wildest fan- 
cies as follows : 

Wendell Phillips, at the A. A. S. Convention in 
the Tabernacle, IS'ew York City, May 4, 1848, of- 
fered the following resolution, which was passed : 

" That this Society deems it a duty to reiterate its convictions 
that the only exodus of the slave out of his present house of 
bondage is over the ruins of the present American Church 

AND THE present AMERICAN UnION." 

In May, 1856, Mr. Garrison offered the following 
resolution at a meeting of the Massachusetts Anti- 
slavery Society : 

"Resolved: That the one great issue before the country is 
The Dissolution of the Union, in comparison with which all 
other issues with the slave power are as dust in the balance ; 
therefore we will give ourselves to the work of annulling this 
' covenant w4th death ' as essential to our own innocency, and 
the speedy and everlasting overthrow of the slave system." 

The following was also adopted by the Aboli- 
tionists in New York City in December, 1859 : 

" Mesohed : That we invite a free correspondence with the 
Disunionists of the South, in order to devise the most suitable 
way and means to secure the dissolution of the present imperfect 
and inglorious union between the free and slave States." 

In May, 1854, Mr. Garrison says editorially : " A 
tliousand times accursed be the Union." On the 
5th of the next July he publicly burned the Consti- 
tution of the United States at South Framingham, 
Mass. 



WERE TIIEY PATRIOTS? 139 

In these few quotations the Disunionists have 
given convincing evidence of their vicious j)olitical 
character. They despised law. They burned the 
Constitution. They cursed the Union. They were 
the original secessionists, and had advocated the 
dissolution of the Union for twenty years before 
Jefferson Davis tried to put their doctrines into 
practice. 

Witli such views and purposes the people of the 
E"orthern States had no sympathy. The Aboli- 
tionists may have had good motives, but their judg- 
ment was invariably bad. Their methods were 
everywhere condemned. They never attained to 
the dignity or influence of a party or even a fac- 
tion. They were a cabal, active, noisy, and pugna- 
cious, but never effective. By their own showing, 
a quarter of a century spent in denouncing the 
Church, the clergy, and the Union had accom- 
plished nothing. Slavery had grown stronger ev- 
ery day, while opposition to it had not increased at 
all. Massachusetts was as sound an antislavery 
State before they were born as it has ever been 
since. But she was for legal and constitutional 
methods only, and always for the Union. 

In 1787 Xathan Dane, one of our representatives 
in Congress, revived the ordinance introduced three 
years earlier by Thomas Jefferson, and secured its 
passage. All this was before Garrison was born! 
But such antislavery action was not repeated dur- 
ing the entire period of Mr. Garrison's efforts for 
disunion. In all that time slavery was unrestrict- 
ed, and made steady progress. 



140 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Slavery never had a legal existence in Massachu- 
setts. The people never wanted it and always 
hated it. They hated its adjuncts and attendants 
of manacles and auction - blocks as much before 
Garrison was born as they did after he had pict- 
ured them in the Lilerator for twenty-five years. 
His incessant pecking at the leaves and twigs of 
the upas-tree of slavery seemed to stimulate rather 
than retard its growth. The ISTorthern people ar- 
dently desired to destroy the tree itself, and were 
ready to adopt any legal and constitutional plan 
which might do this work. Garrison's method of 
casting out a devil by splitting the patient in two 
lengthwise they did not approve, for two reasons : 

1st. Because the patient would die ; 

2d. Because the devil would Uve. 

Some friends of the Abolitionists still claim that 
Garrison and his associates founded the Liberty and 
Free-soil parties. This claim is the exact opposite 
of the truth. They opposed both these parties, 
and hated their champions more than they hat- 
ed the slave-holders themselves. They constantly 
abused every leading antislavery man who was not 
a Disunionist. Ample proof of this can be seen in 
the editorials of the Liberator against Horace Mann, 
Salmon P. Chase, and Dr. Bellows. Lincoln, Sew- 
ard, "Wade, Sumner, and Wilson were not spared.* 

* At a meeting of the Worcester County South Division A. S. 
Society held at Worcester, August 13, 18G0, Parker Pillsbury 
offered the following resolution, which was adopted: 

"Resolved: That in the two recently published speeches of 
Charles Sumner, we sec the blinding, bewildering, and deprav- 



TIIEY ABUSED GOOD MEN. 141 

About the time of Sumner's death, Mr. Garrison 
went before a committee of the Massachusetts 
Legislature to protest against expunging some fool- 
ish resolutions on record denouncing that famous 
Senator.* 

But why prolong the description ? Let the Abo- 
litionists draw their own portraits. They still exist 
in the columns of the Liberator. That paper is an 
arsenal amply suiScient to furnish arms to a mill- 
ion of their assailants. 

With all their keenness of vision, the Abolition- 
ists never saw anything as it was. "With all their 
eloquence, they never advocated any cause to a suc- 
cessful issue. With all their prophetic power and 
practice, they never predicted any event which came 
to pass. With all their love of freedom, they con- 
stantly increased the burdens of the slaves. De- 
manding immediate emancipation, they strove to 
retard the overthrow of slavery. Contending for 
the dissolution of the Union as the only means of 
destroying slavery, they saw slavery destroyed not 
only vrithout their aid, but against their protest, 

ing effect of American politics, and of contact witli slave-liolders 
— tlie former, made in the U. S. Senate, being a four hours' ar- 
gument against the 'five-headed barbarism of slavery,' and re- 
pudiated by many of the leaders of Republicanism; and the lat- 
ter a full admission of the constitutionality of slave-holding, and 
an eloquent argument in favor of the election of Lincoln and 
Hamlin, both of whom believe in s\aYC-hunting as well as slave- 
Jiolding, and who virtually declare in their platform that the no- 
ble John Brown was one of the gravest criminals who ever died 
by a halter." 
* See " Warrington Pen Portraits," page 300- 



143 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

while the Union was preserved and made perma- 
nent and harmonious.^ Incessantly denouncing 



* The following letter, written by Col. Asa H. Waters a short 
time before his death, is so conclusive in its statements that it 
may appropriately be given a place here. 

" Mii.LBUUY, Nov. 20th, 1SS6. 

"3Ii'. Thayer: 

"Dear Sir,— When the Free-soil Party was formed in '48 
Garrison and his party had labored seventeen years and failed to 
carry a single town in New England. In one year we put nine- 
ty members into the Legislature, the second year we carried 
Worcester County, and the third year put a Jiqnter Tonans — 
Charles Sumner — into the very citadel of the slave power. Then, 
at a convention in Worcester, Wilson had the party christened 
the Republican Party, with the same Free Soil platform, and on 
that we elected Lincoln President, and he abolished Slaver3\ 

"In all this we had the bitter opposition of Garrison and his 
party, which finally clasped hands with the Disunionists of the 
South, in a determined effort to break up the Union. Had they 
succeeded, so far from abolishing slavery, they would have vast- 
ly extended it. The design of the South was to cope in New 
Mexico, Arizona, Indian Territory, Utah, and Southern Califor- 
nia, and thus build up a great Southern Empire founded on 
Slavery. I enclose the resolution in which the}'^ proposed the 
unholy alliance. A committee was chosen, and I think M. D. 
Conway was chairman. The correspondence was never pub- 
lished. Secession movements soon after commenced, and in a 
little over a year the war broke out. It was suppressed and 
slavery abolished by the patriotic Union sentiment of the North, 
which always was its predominant political sentiment. ' Down 
with the Disunionists;' 'Death to traitors, slavery or no slavery,' 
were the cries that rang through the ranks ; and for a long time 
the army returned fugitive slaves. At length it was discovered 
that the rebels \vere using their slaves as a means of strength, 
which made them contraband of war and liable to confiscation. 
Then their obstinate resistance created a ' military necessity,' 
and on these two principles rather than by any authority in the 



GARRISON RESOLUTIONS. 143 

the clergy and churches of the Northern States as 
the upholders of slavery, they lived to see these 
among the foremost agencies in its destruction by 
the methods of the Emigrant Aid Company, which 
the Abolitionists hated, ridiculed, and opposed. 

The following resolutions plainly show how the 
disunionists regarded all the political antislavery 
parties. The Liberator of September 15, 1848, re- 
cords the following resolution, passed in the A. A. 
S. Convention : 

''Resolved : That James G. Birney was dropped by the Liberty 
party, on the ground that John P. Hale (who was never an Ab- 
olitionist) was the more available candidate— and now J. P. Hale 

United States Constitution, President Lincoln issued his procla- 
mation. 

"The abolitionists opposed his election, and being non-resist- 
ants, were rarely found in the ranks, and they thus failed for 
the most part to become identified with the active forces that 
abolished slavery. 

"And yet, for twenty years the press has been teeming with 
their effusions in poetry and prose, to convince the world that 
they abolished slavery! They have done much to falsify history, 
and produce wrong impressions on the rising generation. A 
duty devolves on those who know the facts, to counteract and 
set back this tide. But how shall it be done? Where is the 
press that can be enlisted? 

"I had a long controversy with Oliver Johnson; he finally 
jumped the fence and cleared from the field, declaring he never 
made the issue that Garrison abolished slavery. The editor 
(Slack) said he did. He boasted of being ' a member of the Re- 
publican Party.' In the Greeley campaign of 72 against Grant, 
he labored with his Southern allies and they carried six Southern 
States, but no Northern. That shows his consistency. 
* ' Yours respectfully, 

"A. H. Waters." 



144 THE KAXSAS CRUSADE. 

is superseded by Martin Van Buren (an open enemy of anti- 
slavery) for the same reason— wliicli shows that party as devoid 
of integrity and fixed principle as either of the others." 

The Liberator, E"ovember, 1860, records this res- 
olution, adopted by A. A. S. Convention : 

"AH v,'ho are parties to the Union and supporters of the Con- 
stitution and Federal Government are guilty of sustaining the 
iniquitous system of slavery." 

The Liberator of June, 1854:, has the following 
resolution denouncing the Free-soil party (adopted 
by A. A. S. Convention ) as : 

" Devoid of principle, false to the cause of liberty, and utterly 
unworthy of the confidence and support of those w^ho would la- 
bor effectively for the abolition of slavery." 

The Liberator of June 6, 1856, gives the follow- 
ing speech of Wendell Phillips, made before the 
K E. A. A. S. Convention, in Boston : 

"But !Mr. Fremont— what claims has he upon the friends of 
freedom? Our friend, Theodore Parker, says very truly that he 
has got a good wife. Well, if all of us M-ho have got good wives 
are to be put up for President, there will be a great many candi- 
dates. We used to hear of the goodness of Judge McLean's 
wife, and he made more pro-slavery law on the bench than all 
the pro-slavery judges put together, in spite of his wife; and now 
Mr. Giddings says he is ready to write on his banner even the 
name of INIcLean. At least he said so while there was a Kansas, 
but now she is gone, he may rise to a higher thought and be un- 
willing to struggle for a broken reed." 

But while these fanatics ridiculed the platforms 
of all political parties, they were evidently proud 
of principles like the following. At an anniversary 



DISUNION APPLAUDED. 145 

meeting of the Massachusetts Antislavery Society, 
held in Faneuil Hall January 23 and 24, 1850, it 
was 

"Resolved: That we seek a dissolution of the Union," etc., . . . 
and that 

"We do hereby declare ourselves the enemies of the Constitu- 
tion, Union, and Government of the United States, and the 
friends of the new confederacy of States, where there shall be 
no union with slave-holders," etc., . . . and 

"We proclaim it as our unalterable purpose and determina- 
tion to live and labor for a dissolution of the present Union, by 
all lawful and just, though bloodless and pacific means," etc. 

On the above, Mr. George Ticknor Curtis com- 
ments as follows : 

"Certain obvious reflections will occur to those who may 
hereafter read these proceedings in the light of what has actually 
occurred. First, that, whether attempted at the North or at the 
South, the idea of breaking up the Union and destroying the 
Constitution by * bloodless and pacific means ' was a chimera, 
palpably impossible ; . . . secondly, that if it was right for such 
sentiments and purposes to be proclaimed in Boston, it was 
equally right to proclaim them in Nashville." — Curtis's "Life of 
Webster," vol. ii., pp. 399, 400. 

Such were Garrison and his methods. He began 
his work with such anathemas against slave-holders 
and all who did not subscribe to his own wild the- 
ories that men who before had often expressed 
strong antislavery convictions were driven to si- 
lence lest they should be confounded with the dis- 
unionists. 

Dr. Horace Bushnell, in his famous sermon in 

1839, said to these fanatics : " Our clergy used to 

set forth on fast-days and other like occasions, as 

I recollect with the greatest satisfaction, the na- 

7 



146 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

tional crime of slavery. And when they prayed 
on the subject, they prayed for emancipation — did 
it, too, jpleno corde, and without adding ingenious 
quaUfications, as we are driven to do, to show that 
we are not members of your society." 

In this way the expression of antislavery senti- 
ments was suppressed even among loyal and pa- 
triotic clergymen. Political parties were even more 
sensitive, and dreaded above all things the charge 
of sympathy with Garrisonism. 

In support of Avhat has already been said, some 
opinions of eminent authors, statesmen, and jour- 
nalists concerning the disunion Abolitionists and 
their methods are here introduced. These are only 
a minute fraction — not a hundredth part — of what 
could easily be furnished. Extending through a 
period of thirty years, they present a faithful pict- 
ure of these lunatics in every stage of their devel- 
opment, or rather of their inverted evolution. They 
furnish, too, abundant proof of the utter detesta- 
tion and scorn of nearly all the people for this 
noisy cabal of irrepressible scolds. 

These sicldy minds that " fevered into false cre- 
ation" had no admirers among sound and healthy 
patriots. 

Theodore Koosevelt, in his admirable "Life of 
Benton," sustains the preceding views with charac- 
teristic courage and abihty as follows : 

"The cause of the Abolitionists has had such a halo shed 
round it by the after-course of events, which in reality they did 
very little to shape, that it has been usual to speak of them with 
absurdly exaggerated praise. . . . 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 147 

"The Abolition societies were only in a very restricted de- 
gree the causes of the growing feeling in the North against 
slavery : they are rather to be regarded as themselves manifes- 
tations of that feeling. . . . 

"When the Abolitionist movement started it was avowedly 
designed to be cosmopolitan in character; the originators look- 
ed down upon any merely national or patriotic feeling. This 
again deservedly took away from their influence. In fact, it 
would have been most unfortunate had a majority of the North- 
erners been from the beginning in hearty accord with the Abo- 
litionists; at the best, it would have resulted at that time in the 
disruption of the Union and the perpetuation of slavery in the 
South. . . . 

"But slavery was an interest common to the whole South. 
When it was felt to be in any way menaced, all Southerners 
came together for its protection; and from the time of the rise 
of the Abolitionists onward the Separatist movement throughout 
the South began to identify itself with the maintenance of sla- 
very, and gradually to develop greater and greater strength. . . . 

"Owing to a variety of causes, the Abolitionists have received 
a vast amount of hysterical praise, which they do not deserve, 
and have been credited with deeds done by other men whom 
they in reality hampered and opposed rather than aided. After 
1840, the professed Abolitionists formed but a small and com- 
paratively unimportant portion of the forces that were working 
towards the restriction and ultimate destruction of slavery; and 
much of what they did was positively harmful to the cause for 
which they were fighting. Those of their number who consid- 
ered the Constitution as a league with death and hell, and who 
therefore advocated a dissolution of the Union, acted as ration- 
ally as would anti-polygamists nowadays, if, to show their dis- 
approval of Mormonism, they should advocate that Utah should 
be allowed to form a separate nation. The only hope of ulti- 
mately suppressing slavery lay in the preservation of the Union, 
and every Abolitionist who argued or signed a petition for its 
dissolution was doing as much to perpetuate the evil he com- 
plained of as if he had been a slave-holder. . , . 

" The Liberty party was not in any sense the precursor of the 
Republican party, which was based as much on expediency as 
abstract right, and was therefore able to accomplish good in- 



148 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

stead of harm. To say that the extreme Abolitionists triumphed 
in Republican success and were causes of it, is as absurd as it 
would be to call Prohibitionists successful if, after countless 
futile efforts totally to prohibit the liquor traffic, and after 
savage denunciation of those who try to regulate it, they should 
then turn round and form a comparatively insignificant portion 
of a victorious high-license party." 

The five quotations which follow are from states- 
men and journalists of world-wide fame. They 
were contemporary with the Garrison anarchists, 
and knew whereof they spoke. The well-consid- 
ered words of John Quincy Adams, Thurlow AYeed, 
Kichard H. Dana, Jr., Horace Greeley, and Samuel 
Bowles will be good authority with the American 
people long after the Garrison eulogists shall have 
ceased to falsify history. 

The following extracts are quoted from the diary 
of John Quincy Adams : 

"September, 1837.— Lundy and the Abolitionists generally are 
constantly urging me to indiscreet movements, which would 
ruin me, and w^eaken and not strengthen their cause. 

"November, 1838.— Dr. Channiug appeared to entertain great 
apprehensions for the Union, and deep concern at the violence 
of the abolition spirit. . . . The result of their interposition has 
been hitherto mischievous and, I believe, injurious to their own 
cause. 

" September, 1839..— But this, I suppose, emanates from the en- 
thusiasm of antislavery, not yet refrigerated, as with the great 
mass of Abolitionists it has been, by the dampers which I have 
put upon their senseless and overbearing clamor for the imme- 
diate, total, uncompensated abolition of slavery in the Distiict 
of Columbia. 

''August, 1840. — Garrison and the non-resistant Abolitionists, 
Brownsou and the Marat Democrats, phrenology, and animal 
magnetism all come in, furnishing each some plauaiblc rascality 



THURLOW WEED— R. H. DANA. 149 

as an ingredient for the bubbling caldron of religion and poli- 
tics." 

Thurlow Weed (page 306, " Memoirs ") says ; 

" Witli opponents of slavery, led by John Quincy Adams, I 
lived and labored in harmony and zeal. We were eternally op- 
posed by Birney, Goodell, Garrison, and other Abolitionists, 
who, in election so cast their ' third party ' vote as to elect pro- 
slavery Governors, Congressmen, and Presidents. Finally, by 
defeating Mr. Clay, they brought Texas into the Union as a slave 
State. That class of Abolitionists threw themselves across the 
track of all healthful political organization. " 

Again, on page 305, he says : 

" William Lloyd Garrison closed his review of thirty years of 
editorial service with an article glorying at the prospect of dis- 
union. ... In a speech at Boston, Wendell Phillips said: 'Let 
the South march off; with flags and trumpets we will speed the 
parting guest. Let her not stand upon the order of her going, 
but go at once. Give her forts, arsenals, and sub-treasuries. 
Give her jewels of silver and gold, and rejoice that she has de- 
parted. All hail disunion!'" 

Eichard II. Dana, Jr., March, 1861, in a speech 
made in Manchester, E". H., said ; 

"These Abolitionists at the North of whom I speak, left to 
themselves, and of their own force, attract little attention and 
have little influence. Their disconnection from politics, their 
secession attitude, their disunion purposes, render it so. I have 
known them from my college days, and I do not see but that 
they have the same orators and much the same audiences they 
had then. I do not see that they have added one convert of note 
to their ranks, or even kept pace with the increase of population. 
Their organ is the Liberator. Who sees the Liberator? Is it 
sold at our railroad-stations, or in our horse-cars or steam -cars, 
or at our steamboat-landings, or hawked in the streets? I see a 
good deal of what is going on in Boston, but to the best of my 
recollection I never saw it but once in my life, and then it was 
sent to me by mail from a Southern city." 



150 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

New Yorlc Tribune^ December, 1860 : 

HORACE GREELEY ON WENDELL PHILLIPS'S "HO- 
LIER THAN THOU." 

" 'Did you ever,' says Rabelais, 'see a dog with a marrow- 
bone iu his mouth — the beast of all others, according to Plato, 
the most philosophical? If you have seen him, you might have 
remarked with what devotion and circumspection he wards and 
watches it; with what care he keeps it; how fervently he holds 
it; how prudently he gobbles it; with what affection he breaks 
it; and with what diligence he sucks it.' Antislavery is Mr. 
Phillips's bone, and no man can venture to indulge in a little 
philanthropy without provoking from that gentleman a sub- 
acidulous snarl. He dotes only on those who disagree with him, 
and all his converts immediately become the objects, not, per- 
haps, of his jealousy, but certainly of his suspicion. He loves 
his enemies because it is so delightful to pummel them, and he 
dilates with pleasure over some fresh and uncommon wicked- 
ness, just as a surgeon admires a large ulcer better than a cheek 
which health has incarnadined. . . . Mr. Phillips is a close-com- 
munion reformer. You must take the wine out of his cup, or 
you shall not have a drop. You must receive the bread from 
his plate, or you shall not swallow a scrap. ... A bigot of liber- 
ality, a sectarian anti-sectarian, a sour philanthropist, is not a 
pleasing object. Mr. Phillips should remember that hostility to 
human bondage cannot be monopolized by seven men in Corn- 
hill, Boston ; and that a presidential election is of more conse- 
quence in the world's turmoil than six ' antislavery bazaars.' . . . 
He lacks largeness of views to that deplorable extent that he 
cannot conceive of a tempest outside of a teapot. A little con- 
vention in a little village passing a little series of little resolu- 
tions, and just a little disturbed bj' the lewd and base, is to Mr. 
Phillips the most august of all possible human gatherings. . . . 
It is his misfortune, as it is that of the handful who consort with 
him, that they look at large events through the large end of the 
telescope, while, when little affairs are to be scrutinized, there is 
no microscope powerful enough to satisfy their desire for mag- 
nificence. . . . Everything must be done in the routine of a 
clique. You must subscribe for the Liberator. You must be 



GREELEY AND BOWLES. 151 

mobbed twice a year — once in New York and once in Boston. 
Y"ou must think as Mr, Garrison thinks, and you must not think 
as anybody else thinks. If you are found faithful in these things 
you are esteemed faithful in all. . . . Our only doubt is whether 
it is even worth while to set them right. Perhaps it would be 
most merciful to leave a mill-horse to stagger in his circle to the 
end, for he will fall down if taken out of it, and even if he should 
survive the transplantation he will be utterly useless for the 
plain, straightforward highway." 

Daily Evening Traveller, Boston, Mass., May 29, 
1857: 

SAMUEL BOWLES'S EDITORIAL. 

" The great majority of the Garrisonian party forfeit all claim 
to our esteem by being blasphemous, vituperative, coarse, and 
vile in their manners and language. We need not instance a 
man named Foss, who has the impudence to claim the title Rev- 
erend, and who began a sentence in a speech at New York week 
before last with the phrase, 'I hate the Union,' and ended it by 
saying, * I hate Jesus Christ.' All the leaders of the Garrisonian 
party sat around, but no one of them rebuked the monstrous 
blasphemy. The speech was circulated through all the Southern 
papers, and Mr. Foss was denounced as ' a Republican.' If he 
had died in his cradle he would have done better by himself 
than to have lived to commit this sin. 

"The same style of thought has been manifested at this gath- 
ering in the Melodeon. We listened yesterday to the compre- 
hensive abuse uttered by Mr. Higginson, who also claims to be a 
minister of the gospel. If we had stayed five minutes longer 
than w^e did, and his effect had been equal to his effort, we should 
have been convinced that the population of the world consisted 
of one billion of depraved wretches and one perfect man named 
Higginson. It was just so with the whole of them, the same 
eternal whine, redeemed only in the case of Wendell Phillips by 
eloquence. 

"All such stuff does harm. The few Garrisonians whom we 
believe honest in uttering it, we wish could be brought under 
different influences, for they are unconsciously injuring the anti- 
slavery cause. They arc sustaining by their weight of character 



152 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

an organization four-fifths of whose members are selfish or indis- 
creet men and unsexed women; an organization which has be- 
come fruitless, and will die in the next generation, . . . 

"For the remainder of the Garrisonian party, the strong-mind- 
ed women, and the professional humanitarians who earn their 
daily bread by injuring the noble cause they propose to serve, 
w^e have no feelings but of ridicule and contempt. It is useless 
to meet them in argument. They are not worth treating with 
pity. One of their peculiarities is a key to their whole charac- 
ter. The nearer a well-behaved man comes to their professed 
antislavery doctrines, the more vilely they abuse him," 

Without distracting the attention of the reader 
by useless comment, I here submit to his judgment 
twenty-two letters and editorials from writers in 
widely separated localities, and all contemporary 
with those whom they criticise. These are only 
representative ; a thousand more of like import 
could be readily furnished. 

Extract from a letter of Kev. John Guthrie to 
George Thompson, in the Glasgow Christian Wit- 
ness, 1851 : 

"What is this organization — this American Antislavery Soci- 
ety — to which we must all succumb, and after which British 
'Evangelicals,' with Mr. George Thompson at their head, must 
be content to be dragged through the infidel mire? What but a 
miserable faction — a minute fraction of tbe American people — a 
seething caldron of infidel and anarchical agitation, comprising 
the various shades of rationalism in New England, and sending 
forth agents on a crusade against both the Church and the State, 
some of whom are apostate ministers, and are as audacious blas- 
phemers as ever polluted with their foul breath the moral atmos- 
phere of our world ? . . . 

"There are some things worse than slavery, or even war. 
Infidelity is worse ; anarchy is worse. If War slays its thou- 
sands, one week's anarchy, on cither side of the Atlantic, would 



PATRIOTIC EDITORIALS. 153 

slay its myriads and its millions. The Garrisonians seek to 
compass the triumph of both." 

Editorial on Garrison Abolitionists in the Glas- 
gow Christian News, 1852 : 

"The gentlemen whom I refer to are men of peace. They 
would not handle daggers— no, not they ! They would not han- 
dle them, but they speak them ; they write them. Like the 
apocalyptic monster, they have horns like a lamb, but they speak 
like a dragon. They base Abolitionism on directly infidel prin- 
ciples. They propose infidel resolutions at public meetings. 
They do their utmost to identify Christianity and slavery, and 
to inoculate with this poison every fugitive slave who comes in 
tlieir way; and instead of contenting themselves with striking at 
slavery through whatever churches and other influences they 
can, without questioning their motives or their honest desire to 
see slavery abolished, we yet venture to say that on too many 
occasions they seem to be most in their element when they aim 
a blow through slavery at the very heart of the churches and of 
that holy religion of which, with all their faults, the American 
churches are the shrines." 

Detroit Free Press, November, 1853 : 

"What sort of friends to the slave are Garrison, Abby Kelly, 
or the other kindred spirits that congregate at Abolition conven- 
tions? They deem it a humane act to steal negroes from their 
masters, run them into Canada, and there leave them to starve; 
but so actuated by ' principle ' are they that they would not con- 
tribute a dollar to purchase all the slaves in Christendom. And 
they would be satisfied with no plan by which slavery should be 
gradually abolished. Immediate abolition, regardless of conse- 
quences, is their watchword, or no abolition at all. Impractica- 
ble on every subject, their influence is all for evil — in no respect 
for good. 

"But the infidelity of this sect, their attacks upon the Chris- 
tian Church and the Christian religion, their assaults upon the 
Bible, and their denial of God, we desire to hold up to public at- 
tention and public reprobation. The evil is, perhaps, one that 
7* 



154 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

will best cure itself ; but right-thinking men, no matter what 
may be their peculiar opinions in regard to slavery, should dis" 
courage, in all proper ways, the propagation of doctrines which 
so inevitably lead to infidelity." 

Boston Bee, May, 1853 : 

"A Voice from Garrison.— William Lloyd Garrison made 
a speech yesterday at the Melodeon, in which he boasted that he 
stood outside the Union; and furthermore he thanked God he 
was not recognized as a Christian! No one will doubt the first 
part of his remark, and the only regret we have, in common with 
American citizens generally, is that he is not corporeally out of 
the country. As to the latter part of the sentence, we may say 
that there is no danger of as black an infidel as there is in the 
nation being taken for a Christian. Any one who has hearS 
this blasphemous reviler of the Church, the Bible, and religion 
for the past fifteen years will smile at his Tom Paine sensitive- 
ness lest he be regarded for what the decent part of the world 
respect and reverence." 

Milford (N. H.) BejouUican (Free -soil), June, 

1858: 

"In Full Blast.— The real Simon Pure AboHtionists have 
been in convention in New York. Time does not seem to tem- 
per their zeal with discretion. The sentiments expressed were 
a curious mixture of rampant antislavery intolerance, a slight 
dash of common-sense, with any amount of political crotchets 
and crudities, treasonable denunciations of the Union, which 
Wendell Phillips wished to send to the devil, and frothy ravings 
against the religious institutions of the country." 

Boston Daily Mail, May, 1853 : 

"New England ANTISLA^^RY Convention.— There seems 
no present or prospective amelioration of the insanity with 
which this society is so unhappily afflicted, and wliich has ren- 
dered a class of men and women really efficient as good citi- 
zens, and at one time presenting an organization commanding at 
least some support, to the unenviable position of buffoons to 



BOSTON BEE. 155 

amuse the thoughtless and to excite the pity and compassion of 
sensible men. The 'New England Antislaveiy Society,' so far 
as influence indicates progress, is rapidly retrograding, and in a 
few years will number very few members outside of the insane 
asylums." 

Editorial in Boston Bee, May 26, 1853 : 

"Who and what are the men who make up the Abolition 
party? We are sorry to say, for the good reputation of New 
England, that they are for the most part an irresponsible, shift- 
less, belligerent, and dangerous sort of men. We refer to the 
leaders. Take Garrison, the filibuster, who is a fair specimen 
of one of its two wings, Parker Pillsbury, the blasphemer, being 
a sample of the other. Do they weigh a feather in the commu- 
nity, outside of their fanatical hobby ism? Garrison long ago 
became an alien in this community. His words are listened to 
with the same ear, and are given as nmch or as little heed to, as 
the ravings of a confirmed maniac, which they so much resem- 
ble. : . . 

"It is men of this stamp who form the Abolition party of 
New England— insane destructionists at home, destructively in- 
sane abroad. It is such men who meet at the Melodcon, year 
after year, as to-day, to concoct new schemes of moral villany, 
hatch up new ways of sedition, and then strew them over New 
England and such other Northern States as it is safe and profita- 
ble to visit. . . . What has Abolitionism done but to make new 
chains for the slave, and to create new and extreme necessities 
for the master? What has it done but to injure the slave, and 
put back his emancipation an indefinite time? What has it ac- 
complished but to throw blocks in the way of progress— to stay 
the course of real humanity? Nothing. . . . Where is abolition 
going ? Plainly, to its grave. But not without gnashings, gasp- 
ings, and all manner of deathly struggles. Its proselytes will 
not easily give up the ghost in death, any more than they have 
given up phantoms while living. Life is tenacious in everything 
that is foul and monstrous. It will be so here. But it must 
come to it. Its doom is fixed. It dwindles yearly. Its num- 
bers to-day are far less than five years ago. Men of sense, who 
once swelled its ranks, hoping to do some good to the slave, long 



156 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

ago found the means proposed by Abolitionism as entirely with- 
out good effect. They found the men engaged in the cause to 
be heartless beyond account, and as unprincipled and selfish and 
mercenary as they were heartless. Hence the party shrunk into 
a faction, and from a faction into a shadow, till it is now the 
disgust and disgrace and execration of the wise and decent of 
every community." 

New Torh Herald (editorial), 1853 : 

"THE ABOLITION FANATICS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

"From the proceedings of the late Abolition Convention, held 
in Boston, which we published Monday, our readers will have 
discovered the desperate straits to which the rabid fanatics of 
the Lloyd Garrison school have been driven. Their platform 
has been reduced to two planks — hostility to Christianity and 
the Bible, and all possible assistance, in violation of the laws, to 
the escape of fugitive slaves. 

"But to such rabid excess have these crazy wretches carried 
their impotent malignity, that they have tabooed John P. Hale, 
because he was charged with being in favor of the erection of a 
monument to Henry Clay, They denounce Charles Sumner as 
being too amiable among the slave-holders of the United States 
Senate; and they repudiate all those faithless Abolitionists who 
were weak enough to join in any of the public manifestations of 
regret for the death of Daniel Webster, More than this, they 
have determined to strike at the very root of the evil. They 
have determined to abolish the churches of all denominations, 
to abolish the Bible, to abolish the principles of Christianity 
which it inculcates, and to establish a new code of morals and 
religion, which shall recognize the entire enormities of slavery 
and the duty of all men and all women of the North to rally to 
the extermination of it by fire and sword. . . . The convention, a 
sort of summing up of the various Abolition orgies of the year, 
stands adjourned for a twelve-month. It is manifest they are 
doing a losing business. Even in Massachusetts such miserable 
creatures as have figured for a dozen years past at these Abolition 
conventicles are beginning to be regarded, at least in the aggre- 
gate, as a public nuisance. The deluded victims of Garrison & 



THE VIEWS OF PATRIOTS. 157 

Co., who have been supplying their funds from year to year, no 
doubt suspect at last that it does not pay, at the price, to support 
such fellows for nothing in exchange but windy, filthy speeches 
and the most bold-faced hypocrisy and humbug. Let their sup- 
plies be stopped altogether, and let them go to some honest call- 
ing. We trust that this will be the end of their Abolition trick- 
ery and thimblerigging." 

New Torh Independent, January 3, 1856 : 

"Of the converts to spiritualism, almost all of them were in- 
fidels, and some of them, like Garrison, of the most degraded 
class." 

Keeiie (N. H.) Sentinel, March, 1846 (editorial) : 

"It is well the Garrison, Phillips, Foster, and Abby Kelly fa- 
natics can have but little or no influence by promulgating the 
abominable doctrines that the American Church must be de- 
stroyed and the Union dissolved!. It has been the doctrine of 
the Liberator until the last year, that slavery in the South would 
be destroyed by the influence of the free States. . . . Where is 
the philosophy so much boasted of before in this movement? 
They seem willing that slavery shall exist now and in all com- 
ing time at the South, if the free States can only be a nation by 
themselves. This movement shows a heartlessness to us unsur- 
passed by no pro-slavery party in the free States. Indeed, we 
know of no such party." 

Lock])ort Daily Courier, January, 1816 (editorial): 

"It cannot be denied that the horrors of slavery have been 
vastly increased, and the area of its domains immeasurably ex- 
tended, through the systematic and ill-advised efforts of North- 
ern Abolitionists. 

"The South, aroused by the efforts of the North to wrest from 
them the system of slavery, planned and carried through the 
scheme of annexation. For this extension of slavery we believe 
the North is wholly responsible. It was a slave project, planned 
and consummated because of the belligerent attitude of the North 
towards the domestic institutions of the South; and the North 
need hope for no better success in the future, so long as the 



158 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

same course is pursued towards the South, We are not plead- 
ing for slavery. We hate the entire system as thoroughly and 
cordially as any man living; and hence we are inclined to de- 
nounce what experience has taught is calculated to retard the 
progress of emancipation, though the opposite may be the orig- 
inal intention. Taunt the slave-holder, and the stripes of the 
slave will pay for it; but tell him that the Northern farmer, with 
far less land and capital, with a quarter of the labor, makes twice 
as much money every five years as the planter and slave-holder, 
and he will listen to you. Publish these facts among the people 
and a popular feeling will be aroused, before which slavery must 
wither and perish." 

Haverhill (Mass.) Gazette, January, 1846 (edito- 
rial) : 

' ' Abolition takes the same course. Reasonable men have long 
been aware of the evils of slaverj'^; its inconsistency with our 
highest pretensions to being the friends of liberty, and its total 
disregard of the natural rights of man. A new impulse was 
greatly needed to impress these truths more forcibly upon the 
national ear, and had a few such men as Channing and C. M. 
Clay arisen, without the ultraists, who had the folly to suppose 
that they were about to break the chains of three million of bond- 
men by noise and clamor, declamation and denunciation, there 
is no telling what immense good might have been accomplished. 
But when the lead of the movement fell into the hands of a few 
men, for whose insane self-sufficiency all the millions of slaves 
left after the liberation of a few by colonization was not enough 
to operate upon — and who spent more breath in denouncing all 
who did not confide in their omnipotence and assist in blowing 
their bellows, than in argument against slavery — and the tragic, 
comical farce was ended by using up the political power of the 
party to assist the slave-holders in extending the ' area of slavery ' 
over half a continent." 

New Yorh Christian Inquirer, May, 1857 (edito- 
rial) : 

"The Kansas excitement took the wind out of their sails, by 
doing their business better than they could, and the Supreme 



GARRISONISM DENOUNCED. 159 

Court has finished them. Little seems left of a set of admirable 
orators, unsurpassed debaters, armed at all points— magnificently 
unscrupulous, sublimely impudent, gloriously extravagant men 
used to making grand, exciting speeches once a week, year in 
and year out — always expected to stun the audience, and always 
fulfilling the expectations — but now out of business— and prac- 
tising as amateurs at their old calling. As the soap-boiler, on quit- 
ting the firm, reserved the right to come in on ' melting days,' 
so the antislavery gladiators claim the privilege of occupying 
their old place on anniversary week. And really it would seri- 
ously detract from the charms and even the uses of that occasion, 
if this extraordinary class of public speakers were to disappear. 
Practice makes perfect, and we have never had a school in which 
all the excellencies and all the defects— all that should be copied 
and all that should be shunned in popular eloquence, have been 
so perfectly ripened. The windflowers and the sunflowers — 
never the poppies — of rhetoric have all bloomed in utmost per- 
fection on the Abolition rod. Argument and sophistry, sense 
and madness, principles and personalities, piety and profanity, 
noble aspirations and grovelling blasphemy, all have found their 
aptest tongues on their platforms." 

From the Eastern (Me.) Argics, 1852 (editorial) : 

"As to the Abolitionists and the Abolition philanthropy, the 
latter is a cheat and the former are a set of miserable hypocrites. 
There is not an honest man among them. . . . The true Abolition- 
ists are the descendants of the Tories of the Revolution and are 
themselves always found on the side of their country's enemies. 
They are a treacherous, hypocritical, ungenerous, and unchari- 
table set of fanatics, deserving only the contempt of their neigh- 
bors, and unworthy the good opinion of all who value the peace 
and prosperity of their country. We do not in the least misrep- 
resent their character. How unjust, is it not, to hold the entire 
North responsible for the ravings and buffoonery exhibited by a 
few fools, who are better fitted for the mad-house than they are 
to enjoy the privileges of sensible citizens." 

Boston Times, August, 185-i (editorial) : 

" Stability of the Union. — Mr. Garrison is such an ass as to 
believe that the dissolution of the Union would prove beneficial to 



160 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

the slaves of the South ; and so he fires away at the Union with all 
his might and strength — and with just ahout as much effect as 
King Canute's commands had on the advancing tide. His lahors 
have ceased to excite any feelings whatever. Neither indignation, 
nor wonder, nor laughter is born of them. ISIen take them as they 
take any other nuisance that is unavoidable under the conditions 
of existence; as they take hot weather, the prevalence of cholera, 
short crops, or any other similar visitation. This has been their 
conduct for years past, and the best effects have followed from 
it. Had they acted differently — and had Mr. Garrison's longings 
for persecution and martyrdom been gratified— had his office 
been torn down, his press destroyed and his person maltreated — 
had scoundrel judges, as beneath Jeffries in principle as above 
him in meanness, been allowed to twist and pervert the law and 
cause timid jurymen to convict him against both law and justice, 
half the population of the free States would long since have be- 
come abolitionized, and the Union, perhaps, have been in much 
danger. But these things have not been done. ]\Ir. Garrison 
has been allowed to roar and rave and madden round the land, 
and to curse the Union and burn copies of the Constitution as 
much and as often as it has suited him to do so, without inter- 
ference from any quarter; and what has resulted from all his 
sayings and doings? Is the Union less strong, less beloved, less 
dear to the people than it was when he commenced his labors? 
By no means. Is the Constitution less respected because the 
same gentleman has on several occasions served it as Queen 
Mary served poor John Rogers, in spite of claims to mercy 
founded on a fruitful wife and a dozen children? Not at all. 
Mr. Garrison has been reduced to utter insignificance because 
people have had the sense not to convert him into a hero, a 
martyr, and a saint, the usual process by which gentlemen of 
his class arrive at the honors of canonization." 

Horace Greeley, in '' The Great American Con- 
flict," vol. i., page 117, confirms the preceding views 
as follows : 

" There was a large and steadily increasing class who, though 
decidedly antislavery, refused either to withhold their votes or 
to throw them away on candidates whose election was impos- 



GREELEY'S CRITICISM. 161 

sible, but persisted in voting at nearly every election, so as to 
effect good and prevent evil to the extent of their power. . . . 

"Thousands, whose consciences and hearts would naturally 
have drawn them to the side of humanity and justice, were re- 
pelled by vociferous representations that to do so would iden- 
tify them with the 'disunion' of Wendell Phillips, the 'radi- 
calism ' of Henry C. Wright, and the ' infidelity ' of Pillsbury, 
Parker, and Garrison." 

Denounced in the bitterest terms by all the lead- 
ing journals in the country, " detested, shunn'd by 
saint an' sinner," these Garrison disunionists did 
nothing but harm during the entire period of their 
spiteful work. They greatly increased the burdens 
of the slaves, and hindered the expression of anti- 
slavery sentiment in the North. Next to a State 
prison uniform, politicians dreaded 'Hhe taint of 
Garrisonism." Hated everywhere in the North as 
much as in the South, they had no following but 
of cranks and monomaniacs like themselves. 

More humiliating, however, than all the criticisms 
of others are their own confessions that all their 
work and worry of more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury were an absolute failure. Here is the confes- 
sion of Wendell Phillips, made twenty-seven years 
after the founding of the Liberator. 

Evening Traveller^ May 28, 185Y : 

" Report of the N. E. A. A. S. Convention in Boston.— 
Wendell Phillips declared the Tract Society an organization not 
worthy the support. of antislavery men. . . . Mr. Phillips said 
that Henry Ward Beechcr, Cheever, and the Republican Party 
were most dangerous to the Abolition cause, which was pitted 
against the Government, the pulpit, and the institutions which 
held men in bondage, body and soul. So far as government 
was concerned, the Abolition cause up to this time has been a 



162 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

failure. Slavery has put down its foot and kept it there, and 
led you on, year after year, from victory to victory. . . . One by 
one the institutions of the country have gone over to the slave 
power — the Missionary Society, the Tract Society, the ' South 
Side Adamses'— and we are left alone." 

William Lloyd Garrison said, in the R. I. A. A. S. 
Convention, May 2, 1856 (see Liberator^ May 2, 
1856): 

" There is no hope for Kansas; for what can be done against 
the Government? The real antislavery strength of the North is 
comparatively weak. The Government has little to fear in this 
quarter." 

ITumerous other confessions by the same authors, 
and of like character, could be furnished from the 
files of the Liberator^ but the most graphic and 
conclusive of all is that of Theodore Parker, al- 
ready recorded in a former chapter. In intellect- 
ual power, in breadth of view, and in logical argu- 
ment, Mr. Parker had no rival among the radical 
Abolitionists. 

During all this quarter of a century of futile 
Abolition effort, slavery had steadily advanced, 
without effective opposition. The Northern States 
were waiting for some method of decisive action 
against the great evil that would not endanger the 
Constitution and the Union. They were loyal to 
the Government and hostile to Garrison's methods. 
To unite these States in active, earnest, and effect- 
ive opposition to slavery Avas a work far beyond 
the power of the Garrisonites. 

They had united the ISTorth against themselves — 
never against slavery. By denouncing all that the 



HOW TO BE AN ANARCHIST. 163 

people cherished, they became what the people 
hated. To sow the wind and reap the whirlwind 
was their pleasing occupation. " To be a good 
Garrisonian," said Mr. Greeley, "a man must be 
mobbed twice a year — once in l^ew York, and once 
in Boston." To prove themselves worthy of their 
name, they seemed to make great efforts to secure 
this distinction. Sometimes they succeeded. To- 
day the same class of men would attain their ob- 
ject much more readily. We know now the cost 
and the value of the Union, and might not listen 
so quietly as we did before the Civil War to in- 
sulting demands for its dissolution. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE PKOGEESS OF THE CRUSADE. 

Having in the last four chapters done simple 
justice, both to the helping and hindering agencies 
in making Kansas free, I return to the history of 
our progress in the Crusade, and of our continued 
success, soon to culminate in the full attainment of 
our objects — freedom victorious and slavery van- 
quished. 

Keturning from Buffalo by way of New York 
City, I organized there an Emigrant Aid Company 
consisting of the following corporators and others : 

Charles King, Benjamin F. Butler, William C. 
Russell, Jonathan J. Coddington, Rensselaer N. 
Havens, Cyrus Curtis, Samuel Leeds, Jr., Charles 
W. Elliot, and Fanning C. Tucker, of New York ; 
and John Hooker, Stephen W. Kellogg, John Boyd, 
William II. Russell, Charles L. English, Timothy 
D wight, Charles B. Lines, Julius Pratt, and Charles 
Ives, of Connecticut. 

R. ]Sr. Havens was chosen actuary. 

As the New York Legislature was not in session, 
a charter for this company was procured from the 
Legislature of Connecticut. Having perfected this 
organization, I returned to Massachusetts to raise 
the second colony. Though this was three times 



SECOND COLONY. 165 

as large as the first, it was gathered with much less 
effort. It left Boston in August, and in September 
joined the first colony in Lawrence, now settled in 
their rude homes. 

" The second band of emigrants (sixty-six in number) for Kan- 
sas left Boston on Tuesday afternoon, and were joined at differ- 
ent places by other parties, so that at Albany the company num- 
bered one hundred and fifty or more. Previous to starting from 
the city, the emigrants assembled in the Lincoln Street depot, 
and sang the song by Whittier, beginning: 

" * TVe cross the prairies, as of old 
The Pilgrims crossed the sea, 
To make the West, as they the East, 
The homestead of the Free.' 

" They also sang the original hymn, beginning: 

" 'From Eastern hill and valley. 

From Ocean's distant shore, 
We come with hearts rejoicing, 

And on by thousands pour. 
'Tis Freedom calls us hither. 

For Freedom's sake we roam ; 
'Mid Western wilds, in Freedom's cause, 

We'll make our happy home.' " 

There was an immense gathering at the station, 
who gave the emigrants cheer upon cheer as they 
began their "Western pilgrimage. 

Two of the company's agents — Charles Eobinson 
and Samuel C. Pomeroy — had charge of this colony 
during its long Westward journey. All the way 
from Boston to St. Louis they received most enthu- 
siastic ovations, proving beyond question the in- 
tense interest of the l^orthern people in this grand 
crusade for freedom. This is well shown by the 
following editorial in the Albany Evening Journal 
of August 30th, written by Thiuiow Weed : 



166 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

"The second Kansas party from Massachusetts (with twenty- 
five from New York) reached this city last night about eleven 
o'clock. They -were three hundred strong. 

"New England, which has given millions of her sons and 
daughters to the great West, never sent out a more sturdy set of 
men, nor one having a more holy mission. They will place their 
mark upon the political, intellectual, and social character of Kan- 
sas. Involuntary servitude can find no resting-place where such 
men rule. And that they and others like them will rule Kansas 
is becoming every day more and more apparent. ... It was very 
gi-atifying to witness the interest felt by a large number of our 
citizens on the arrival of these three hundred freemen. A meet- 
ing had been called early in the evening to make arrangements 
for their reception, and a large crowd remained till half-past 
eleven o'clock to bid them welcome. 

"The interview was deeply interesting and impressive. The 
purpose of their mission, and the gratifying enthusiasm with 
which they have entered upon it, could not fail to awaken emo- 
tions which found expression in befitting congratulations. The 
meeting — held in the large parlors of the Delavan Ilouse — was 
continued till after midnight. We have seldom witnessed a 
more interesting reunion, or one better calculated to awaken the 
zeal of the patriot. There was real sublimity in the spectacle 
presented by these three hundred men, leaving their old New 
England homes for the far West, in order to rescue a vast Ter- 
ritory from the sin and curse of slavery. Never was there a 
more holy crusade, or one pregnant with more glorious results. 
All honor to the noble men who have given their hands and 
their hearts to the noble work." 

This article also proves how powerful an aid in 
saving Kansas was the Northern press, of which I 
shall soon have more to say. It was widely quoted 
and had much influence. It created faith, inspired 
courafre, and stimulated action. 

Editorials similar in patriotic zeal to Mr. Weed's 
Avere published in all the cities and large towns 
through which our colonies passed. All ovations 



OVATIONS— ENTHUSIASM. 167 

given by crowds of patriots everywhere on the 
route Avere faithfully recorded. During the Kan- 
sas crusade volumes of such stirring narrations and 
appeals were made by the patriotic i^ress. As space 
will not allow me to quote them here, Mr. Weed's 
must be taken as a representative of all. 

Let us here observe the progress in our work al- 
ready made, and the new agencies enlisted to assist 
in carrying it forward to victory. 

There was great enthusiasm ev^erywhere aroused 
by the simple fact that two colonies had already 
gone to the disputed Territory. People were now 
everywhere convinced that the method of this com- 
pany was to be action against slavery, and not res- 
olution-making—to be work, and not talk. The 
great mass of the E"orthern patriots had been wait- 
ing for many years for some practical demonstration 
of this kind. Our company Avas conservative and 
law-abiding. We contemplated no violence, unless 
to repel violence. We were all for the Union and 
the Constitution. Standing upon such impregna- 
ble ground, the patriots of all parties began to com- 
bine in our support. They were ready for action. 
For thirty-five years a few politicians had been fir- 
ing off resolutions against the extension of slavery, 
while a sentimental cabal had also fired off their 
resolutions against its existence. These paper pel- 
lets produced no more effect upon the castellated 
bastions of the " Black Power " than cannon-wads, 
without shot, would have had upon an adamantine 
fortress. Here was something quite unlike pictures 
of auction-blocks and manacles. Here was some- 



168 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

thing quite unlike raving appeals in antislavery ba- 
zaars, and sickly resolutions against the Union, the 
clergy, and the churches. 

These pioneers had nothing to say about "the 
iniquity of slavery," or the " sin of its extension "; 
but they had determined, without any words or 
resolutions, to show their purpose by their action. 
With grim defiance in their hearts, they went to 
make their oAvn bodies a barrier against any further 
domination of the slave power. Where in history 
can be found the record of moral grandeur surpass- 
ing this ? Where any to equal it ? The records of 
the human race furnish no such examples of prin- 
ciple or patriotism. All other migrations were as 
inferior to this as men are inferior to angels. 

But it was not alone what our brave colonies had 
done in thus giving all they had and all they were 
to freedom, but also their power, by their letters to 
their friends in their old homes, to extend the in- 
fluence of this great movement. Fortunately, near- 
ly all these colonists Avere ready writers. Many of 
them were liberally educated. Ko sooner had they 
constructed their rude cabins than their letters be- 
gan to be forwarded to the East. In these every 
incident of pioneer life was faithfully pictured from 
day to day ; the great natural advantages of the 
country forcibly presented, and their own deter- 
mination to see Kansas a free State and slavery cir- 
cumscribed, written down with such evident will 
and vigor that whoever read was at once inspired 
with zeal. But the result of these letters, " thick 



LETTERS OF THE PIONEERS. 169 

as leaves in Yallombrosa," was something infinitely 
better than zeal ; it was action. If one letter was 
sent to a town, copies of it were made and every 
citizen had a chance to read it. Young and spirited 
men volunteered to go and share with their brave 
comrades the duties and the dangers of this new 
way of fighting slavery. For three or four months 
my own voice had been the only one urging this 
action. Now at least two hundred pens, all in 
awful earnest, reinforced my arguments. But this 
number of coworkers was to go on increasing with 
great and greater rapidity, as it did to the very end 
of the great conflict. 

Here is one incident to show how these letters 
united all parties in the JS^orth in the cause of free 
Kansas. In the spring of 1855 I Avent to speak in 
a little town in l^ew Hampshire. Arriving at the 
hotel two or tliree hours before the time of the 
evening meeting, I left my satchel at the house, 
but did not put down my name, as I wished to go 
about the village and observe without being ob- 
served. The post-office was in the village store. 
Letters were displayed in the window so that the 
addresses could be read in the street. I observed 
there a letter postmarked with a pen, " Lawrence, 
K. T." The people going by soon discovered it and 
gave a boy a few cents to go and bring the man to 
whom it was addressed. Meanwhile the waiting 
number was increasing. Soon came the owner of 
the letter and opened it. The clamor was, " Read 
it aloud." This he did ; but when he had finished, 
others had come who had not heard the first part 
8 



170 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

of it. It was read in this way the second, third, 
and fourth time. Then one of the young men re- 
quested and obtained a copy for the county paper. 
The result was that the letter of my helper in Law- 
rence was probably read by almost every one in 
that county. Who can ever tell the influence of 
that single letter ? But already we had, so early 
in the movement, two hundred such letter- writers 
in Lawrence. That was already a power; but 
what a force would twenty thousand such writers 
be, when within a few months they would begin to 
wield their pens, and, if need be, their swords also, 
for free Kansas ! 

In the evening we had the church full of people 
to listen to my appeals for pioneers. The letter, 
four times read at the store, was again read at the 
meeting. After the meeting, a dozen or more went 
with me to the hotel and stayed three hours to talk 
about the prospects of " the battle-ground of free- 
dom." Several young men went from that town 
to Springfield, Massachusetts, to join the next colo- 
ny. In our conversation at the hotel I asked the 
gathering about me. What are your politics ? Are 
you Whigs, Democrats, or Free-soilers ? ^' We have 
no such party feelings now ; but we are all for Kan- 
sas a free State. That is our party, and the fight 
in Kansas for freedom is our fight." This grand 
crusade in this way obliterated the old party lines 
and made in a short time the Kepublican party, 
and also made that party the controlling power of 
the nation. 

To some of my readers the above claim may seem 



PATRIOTISM OF THE PRESS. 171 

an unwarrantable assumption. It lias not yet been 
recognized by our historians. A careful study, how- 
ever, of the events in this crusade and conflict will 
find it sustained by abundant proof. 

But another important agency had now come to 
the rescue of freedom — the press of the free States, 
secular and religious, and of all political parties. 
From the beginning of the movement we had the 
aid of the Boston Daily Advertiser and the Chris- 
tian Register. Each of these papers was always 
waiting for something from the ready pen of Ed- 
ward Everett Hale. lie used their columns often, 
and always for the promotion of freedom in Kan- 
sas. Samuel Bowles — the ablest journalist in New 
England — Thurlow Weed in the Albany Evening 
Journal^ Horace Greeley (as shown in the preced- 
ing pages), and William Cullen Bryant sustained 
the movement of organized emigration with great 
energy and eloquence. But these are examples 
only. The thousands of journals, all through the 
free States, were almost without exception active 
and powerful agencies in making Kansas free. It 
would be difficult to over-estimate their power. 
The clergy and the churches were, as I have shown, 
faithful and efficient allies in the great cause, but 
certainly not more important than the press. 

In the first place, the press gave to the country 
the Plan of Freedom, as presented in the charter 
of the Emigrant Aid Company. Next it reported 
all action taken under the charter and the plan of 
operations. Then the fact that a colony was being 
raised. Then the fact that the first colony had act- 



172 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

ually gone — with full accounts of all the ovations 
along the journey. Ils^ot only did the press report 
all my speeches made in the cities, and furnish 
strong editorials sustaining the methods of the 
company, but it published everywhere the very nu- 
merous letters of our pioneers in Kansas. "While 
my voice might reach a few hundred, or at most 
a few thousand, in a day, the voice of the press 
reached millions. The leading journals soon had 
their correspondents in Kansas, and there was hard- 
ly an issue of any paper during the contest that did 
not give its readers the latest news about the great 
conflict between the two antagonistic civilizations. 
Tliis faithful and patriotic work of our Northern 
journals was a powerful, if not an indispensable, 
agency in determining the result of the controversy. 

After our first two colonies had settled in Law- 
rence, and the facts and all the incidents of their 
journey and location had been made known by 
the press to all the people of the l!^orth, the tide 
of migration to that disputed land was rapid- 
ly increased. Kansas Leagues and Kansas Aid 
Committees became numerous in nearly all of the 
JS'orthern States. 

In many places contributions were made to fa- 
cilitate this movement. One of the most effective 
of these committees was the New York Kansas Aid 
Committee of Albany, N.Y. To show the energy 
and activity of this organization, I here quote from 
a letter of Judge Seth B. Cole, recently received : 

"In the fall of 1854 I was elected to the Legislature from my 
native county — Steuben. After January 1, 1855, 1 was in Albany. 



THE ALBANY COMMITTEE. ~ 173 

I heard you deliver three addresses in that city on Kansas, and 
knew the deep interest awakened by them. In April, 1855, a 
mass meeting was held in Albany, at which William H. Seward 
presided, to consider the Kansas question. It directed the ap- 
pointment of a committee by the chairman of the meeting, to be 
called the Kansas Aid Committee. There were eight members of 
that committee. I was one. Hon. William Barnes was secretary 
and custodian of the records. He was most faithful and eflBcient. 
"After the adjournment of the Legislature I continued in Al- 
bany some time, and at the request of the Kansas Aid Com- 
mittee travelled and made appeals to the people in different parts 
of the State, and organized local societies to aid the Kansas 
cause and to influence emigration to Kansas. As a result, I af- 
terwards learned that some forty-two thousand dollars were re- 
ceived by the State committee at Albany, and all expended to 
aid emigration to Kansas. My services were gratuitous." 

The president of this committee was Hon. Brad- 
ford E. Wood ; and after him Hon. Henry H. Yan 
Dyck ; treasurer, Hon. Chauncey P. Williams ; sec- 
retary, Hon. William Barnes. 

The entire amount collected and disbursed seems 
to have been nearly one hundred thousand dollars. 
'No Kansas committee was more effective. 

The following letters to Hon. William Barnes, 
secretary, show how I regarded this organization 
in 1856 : 

" ASTOR IIotJSK, N. Y. CiTT, March 4, 1856. 

"M}\ Barnes: 

"Dear Sir, — I am now about to leave this place and solicit 
subscriptions to the stock of the Emigrant Aid Company in the 
interior cities. I shall speak in Brattleboro next Monday even- 
ing and then go westward. 

" Can the people of Albany be induced to do something to send 
peaceful colonies to Kansas, well armed ? If you think they can, 
I should like to address them some evening next week. 
"Truly yours, 

"Eli Thayer." 



174 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

" WouoESTER, July 26, 1856. 

' ' Mr. Barnes : 

"Dear Sir, — I send you by mail one of the books prepared 
for school district solicitors. Worcester County has six hundred 
districts, and employ's the same number of men and women solic- 
iting aid for Kansas. 

" By the same plan Massachusetts would employ six thousand 
solicitors, all at work for the cause and without pay. One or two 
days each would suffice to do the work. You will see, therefore, 
that the plan combines economy, despatch, and efficiency. 

"We do not rely on large subscriptions, but upon the dimes 
and dollars of the million. 

"We do not wait for meetings. We will encourage them, but 
cannot afford the time to make them a part of the plan. 

"Almost every one is ready to do something without a lecture, 

and that something we w'ant now. 

* w * * * * * 

"I send you an application from a young man in Amherst 
College for a chance to work in your State. I refer the whole 
subject to your State board. 

' ' Very truly yours, 

' Eli Thayer. 
"P. S. — The solicitor books are prepared by the county com- 
mittees and sent to the town agent whom they appoint. The 
town agent appoints the solicitor in each district of his town, 
and gives him or her a book. I think it best to make ladies the 
solicitors, as they can accomplish more for Kansas than the men. 

"E. T." 

" WoEOESXEE, August 1, 1856. 

''Mr. Barnes: 

" Dear Sir, — . . . You have the plan which I proposed to ap- 
ply. Improve it if you can, but allow no delay. You must 
have an assistant secretary at once, and I hope you will procure 
a good man who will relieve you at least from the labor of wait- 
ing, and perhaps of dictating details. 

" I need say nothing to you of the importance of carrying this 
cause to every hearth-stone in the free States. I am happy in 
the conviction that j'ou appreciate the cause of Kansas in its 
fullest extent, and therefore I propose to leave New York to 
you and your excellent committee. My time will now be given 



THE WORCESTER LEAGUE. 175 

to the States which have not j^et any State committees; first in 
New England and the West, and afterwards Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey. 

" W^e hope to have State committees in New England in each 
State, in ten days, and then without delay a perfect organization. 

"If your committee has power to add to its members, I think 
you will do well to add one man from the shire town of each 
county, retaining your present quorum. 

" This will facilitate the organizing of counties. 

"Tell the Republicans this is the way to elect Fremont, and 
all the clubs must work for us. 

" Truly yours, 

"Eli Thayer." 

Among the most efficient Kansas Leagues was 
the one in "Worcester, Massachusetts, of which Al- 
exander H. Bullock was president, and William T. 
Merrifield, vice-president. The following is an ex- 
tract from Mr. Merrifield's reminiscences, published 
in the Woi'cester Sj>y, in 1887 : 

"The recent discussion of the Kansas emigration question of 
thirty years ago has brought to light an interesting reminiscence 
related by Mr. Wm. T. Merrifield. In an interview with that 
gentleman yesterday, he stated to a Spy representative that 
while travelling through the South in January, 1856, he stopped 
at the leading hotel in Montgomery, Ala., and the day he arrived 
there General Buford made a speech in the Legislature, in which 
he said he would pledge himself to the amount of half his fort- 
une for the raising of a company to go to Kansas and drive out 
the free-State settlers and establish slavery in that Territor3\ 
This statement Mr. Merrifield got from members of the Legislat- 
ure stopping at the hotel who had heard Buford's speech. Be- 
fore he left, General Buford had raised half of all the recruits 
he wanted to march into Kansas and drive out the free-State 
men and force slavery there. Mr. Merrifield came home imme- 
diately, fully impressed with the belief that we ought to protect 
our men from this section and send men enough there to coun- 
teract the designs of the pro-slavery raiders. He was thoroughly 



176 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

convinced, from what he had seen, that we could and ought to do 
it. Having in his mind the suggestion of steps to be taken, the 
next morning, after he arrived home, the first man he met on 
the street was Mr. Eli Thayer, on the steps of the old post-office 
building, the Central Exchange. He then stated to Mr. Thayer 
what was being done by General Buf ord, and told him he thought 
it was a perfectly plain duty to send men enough to Kansas to 
protect the free-State men there and frustrate Buford's designs, 
but that it would be necessary to raise money to pay expenses, 
furnish food and equipments. At that moment it was arranged 
between him and Mr. Thayer to take the necessary steps to have 
the thing done, and Mr. Thayer started right off to Boston and 
came back the same day and reported to him the result of his 
mission, that funds could be obtained in Boston for the purpose 
of sending men to Kansas. A meeting was immediately called, 
to be held in Worcester, which took place Saturday evening, 
Feb. 9, 1856, at the City Hall, in response to the call, asking ' the 
friends of freedom and free institutions to assemble and take 
such action as might be deemed advisable to strengthen the 
hearts and hands of those who are upholding the cause of free- 
dom in Kansas.' This was the first public meeting for aid for 
Kansas held in this city. Hon. P. Emory Aldrich presided, and 
the late Harrison Bliss was secretary. After a speech from Gen. 
S. C. Pomeroy, Mr. Thayer spoke, and the result, according to 
the published report of the meeting, was that ' before the audi- 
ence left the hall twenty-three rifles, equivalent to the sum of 
$575, were subscribed for,' by different gentlemen, Mr. Thayer 
having proposed to ' pay for ten Sharp's rifles at $25 each, on 
condition that during the coming week other citizens of Worces- 
ter would subscribe enough to make up the number to one hun- 
dred.' A committee of three was then appointed to solicit sub- 
scriptions for the requisite number." 

One hundred and sixty-five men were raised to 
oppose Buford; each with a Sharp's rifle and a 
plenty of ammunition. All were put in charge of 
Dr. Calvin Cutter. At two subsequent meetings 
more than fifteen thousand dollars were subscribed 
in aid of the Kansas crusade. 



ONE OHIO LEAGUE. 177 

Another very powerful Kansas League is de- 
scribed as follows in the New York Tribune^ Au- 
gust 31, 1854 : 

KAIiTSAS EMIGKATION MOVEMENT. 

*'We have received the proceedings of a large and highly 
respectable meeting representing different portions of Ohio, held 
at Oberlin, August 21st, favorable to the encouragement of emi- 
gration to Kansas. The following officers were chosen for the 
coming year : President — Prof. J. H. Fairchild; Vice-Presidents — 
B. Prentiss, of Medina; Ralph Plumb, Trumbull; the Hon. P. 
Bliss, Lorain; the Hon. Joseph R. Swan, Franklin; Lyman Hall, 
Portage; Uri Seeley, Lake; the Hon. R. P. Spalding, Cuyahoga; 
F. D. Purrish, Erie. Corresponding Secretary — John A. Reed, 
of Oberlin. Treasurer — H, B. Spellman, of Cleveland. Exec- 
utive Committee — Prof. J. H. Fairchild, of Oberlin; John A. 
Reed, do.; H. B. Spellman, of Cleveland; Rev. J. A. Thome, 
do.; Hon. N. S, Townsend, of Avon; Hon. R. C. Hurd, Mount 
Vernon; W. P. Harris, of Oberlin; O. B. Ryder, do. Principal — 
E. H. Fairchild, do. ; Prof. E. H. Peck, do. ; Prof. T. B. Hud- 
son, do. 

"The object of the association is to collect and disseminate 
through the papers and otherwise, as far as possible, such infor- 
mation as is needed with regard to the Territory of Kansas; its 
climate, advantages, &c. ; the best route for companies emigrat- 
ing there; to co-operate with other emigration enterprises; to 
send agents into the various counties of the State, to aw^aken an 
interest in emigration and to organize emigrant companies; to 
raise a fund by the first of March next to be appropriated in aid- 
ing emigration, and in contributing to the comfort and prosper- 
ity of the emigrant after his arrival in Kansas." 

There were several hundred of the different kinds 
of societies, leagues, committees, and companies in 
the free States. Their purposes were generally like 
those of the Oberlin company, above given. The 
Boston company was the only one which made 
large investments in Kansas for the benefit of the 
8* 



178 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

emigrants. The others collected and used funds to 
aid emigrants in their outfits and journey. Each 
had an office (usually the office of a young lawyer 
who acted as secretary). They each had the Her- 
ald of Freedom^ published, edited, and owned by G. 
W. Brown, Lawrence, Kansas. This very valuable 
paper w^as full of information desired by the emi- 
grant, both in relation to the physical advantages 
of the Territory and the progress of the grand con- 
flict within her borders. 

They also had Edward Everett Hale's " Kansas 
and Nebraska," an invaluable hand-book for emi- 
grants. In addition to these sources of informa- 
tion they soon had letters from their colonists in 
Kansas, which they published in the local papers. 
By all these and many other means, the zeal in the 
Kansas cause was not only kept alive but constant- 
ly increased ^to the very close of the controvers}^ 
There was hardly any portion of the free States 
that was not reached by some one of these numer- 
ous agencies. 

At one of my addresses in the Assembly chamber 
at Albany, the venerable Eliphalet Nott, President 
of Union College, was on the platform, having come 
from Schenectady to attend the meeting. After 
my address Dr. IS'ott said that he wished to have a 
talk with me, and would stay overnight at the Del- 
avan House for that purpose. I assured him that 
the interview would give me great pleasure, for 
while I was a student in Brown University I had 
often heard Dr. Wayland speak in the most compli- 
mentary way of his " intellectual father, Dr. E'ott." 



ELIPHALET XOTT, D.D. 179 

We accordingly went to the hotel and conversed 
till after midnight. I had before been questioned 
very minutely upon the methods of the Kansas 
campaign and the prospects of success, but never 
before with such analyzing scrutiny and such pro- 
found sagacity. One of his numerous inquiries was 
rather a surprise to me — not because I had not con- 
sidered the subject — but because he was the only 
man who ever made a like inquiry. The question 
was this : '' I wish you would tell me, Mr. Thayer, 
just Avhat kind of men are of most service in this 
Kansas movement. I ask this question because I 
wish to either verify or prove false an opinion I 
have long entertained and have often expressed to 
my boys. Are the best men, in this case, the ones 
who have said most, or said least, about slavery ?" 
" The men," said I, " who say little or nothing. They 
show the greatest impatience, and even disgust, 
when they hear a ranting resolution-maker berating 
slavery. They seem to think that every Northern 
man understands the evils of slavery without being 
informed of them. At all events, they have long 
ago passed the time of talking — if they ever did 
talk — and have decided to act, now that they have 
a chance of acting effectively. These men intend 
to never see another slave State in this Union. If 
they say anything at all, they say, ' We have too 
many such now, and always shall have, so long as 
there are any at all. Slavery must go. If it harms 
the negro it destroys white men. It is bad econo- 
my and bad policy every way.' " While I was speak- 
ing the countenance of the patriarch was illumined 



180 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

as if by a joyful appreciation of what he was hear- 
ing. Then he said : " That is just what I always 
tell my boys. Restrain your feelings until they 
can impel you to right action. If you can do noth- 
ing, feel as little as possible ; for feeling in such 
cases only debilitates. JS'ow you prove my teach- 
ing true in practice, and my opinion is verified in a 
most satisfactory way." 

Dr. 'Nott at this time (spring of 1855) was con- 
siderably over eighty years of age, having gradu- 
ated at Brown University in 1795, just fifty years 
earlier than myself. 

A few weeks before this interview I had been 
speaking in the State of Maine. Charles H. Brans- 
comb, the conductor of our colonies, having a few 
weeks' leisure, was sent by the Boston company to 
arrange for the meetings. He was of great assist- 
ance in this way, and also of much use in the meet- 
ings, by giving a graphic account of the condition 
of affairs in Kansas, where he had been several 
times, and was well able to speak of the charms of 
the country and its advantages as a home. He also 
answered numerous inquiries of the young men 
who were proposing to join our colonies. I al- 
ways found Mr. Branscomb a faithful and efficient 
assistant. 

One evening I addressed a large meeting in Saco, 
and was advertised to address one in Biddeford, 
across the river, the next evening. After the meet- 
ing in Saco, several young men came to me and 
said that they had been appointed a committee of 



MR. GREELEY LOSES FAITH. 181 

a company intending to go West early in the spring ; 
that they had been thinking of Minnesota, since 
some of their friends had gone there, but now they 
were inchning towards Kansas ; that they would 
go over to the Biddeford meeting and then deter- 
mine whether they would choose Kansas or Min- 
nesota. 

After my address in Biddeford these young men 
came to me and brought a recent issue of the New 
York Trlhune. They showed me an editorial of 
Mr. Greeley's, in which he said Kansas would be a 
slave State. This, they said, had settled the ques- 
tion and they were going to Minnesota. 

Thereupon I wrote a very severe letter to Mr. 
Greeley, and told him that his silly editorial had 
cost me one colony in Saco, and possibly a dozen in 
other places ; that this was a great help to slavery 
and great harm to freedom. Mr. Greeley did not 
reply to me, but he never again offended in the 
same way. I have no doubt that this was the hon- 
est opinion of the great philanthropist. Mr. Gree- 
ley had one weak point. He was evidently deficient 
in courage. There had been some blood spilled 
in Kansas already, and he was really frightened 
into conceding Kansas to slavery. Who that had 
read those glowing editorials already quoted in a 
preceding chapter would have believed it possible 
that his "staying" power would prove so unre- 
liable? 

The reader will recall another similar instance 
occurring some years later. In the early part of 
the Civil War, almost every issue of the Tribune 



182 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

contained a furious " On-to-Eichmond " editorial. 
After Bull Eun, all this fury had evaporated, and 
Mr. Greeley wrote to President Lincoln that it was 
best to make peace on any terms. 

In any moral controversy there was no limit 
to Mr. Greeley's persistency and endurance. But 
when it came to blood, he was apparently unrelia- 
ble. After all, he w^as an invaluable aid in the early 
part of our Kansas work. Through the weekly 
Trihune numerous Kansas Leagues were made in 
the Middle and Western States. The slight harm 
he did in 1855 was a hundred times compensated 
for by his eloquent appeals for the Plan of Free- 
dom in 185:1:. 

The following is from Professor Spring's " Kan- 
sas," page 31. He explains concisely and clearly 
the philosophy and methods of the Emigrant Aid 
Company, and demonstrates its efficiency. 

"The facilities offered by the Boston organization, in addition 
to the obvious advantages of associated effort, were reduction in 
cost of transportation, oversight by competent conductors, in- 
vestments of capital in mills, hotels, and other improvements 
which would mitigate and abbreviate the hardships of pioneering. 
Though the design of the organization was frankly avowed, yet 
anybody, whether in sympathy with its mission or not, might 
freely avail himself of its advantages. The obligations of emi- 
grants who went to Kansas under its wing were wholly implied 
and informal. Assuredly it offered no premium for extreme 
types of antislavery men. On the contrary, a Hunkerish strain 
of conservatism prevailed among the colonists which naturally 
provoked criticism. The Liberator of June 1, 1855, speaking of 
the personnel of the companies already sent on to Kansas, re- 
marked that ' hardly a single Abolitionist can be found among 
all who have migrated to that country. . . , Before they emigrated 



PKOFESSOR SPRING. 183 

lliey gave little or no countenance to the antislaveiy cause at 
home. ... If they had no pluck here, what could rationally be 
expected of them in the immediate presence of the demoniacal 
spirit of slavery? ... To place any reliance on their antislavery 
zeal or courage is to lean upon a broken staff.' . . . 

"But the work of the Boston organization cannot be adequate- 
ly exhibited by arithmetical computations. A vital, capital part 
of it lay in spheres where mathematics are ineffectual — lay in its 
alighting upon a feasible method, which was copied far and wide, 
of dealing with a great political emergency, and in the backing 
of social and monetary prestige that it secured for the unknown 
pioneers at the front. 

" If volume and bitterness of criticism afford any trustworthy 
standard by which its efficienc}^ may be tested, the Emigrant Aid 
Company played no subordinate part in the Kansas struggle." 

The Christian Register^ October 14, 1854, lias the 

following : 

"The Emigrant Aid Society, even if not seconded by others, 
is alone competent to determine the social and moral fate of the 
spacious West, if sustained by the public. Let it be so sustained, 
and millions yet unborn will hereafter hallow the names of those 
who dispelled from that region the dark cloud of slavery, and 
spread the inestimable blessings of freedom, peace, virtue, and 
pure religion over their vastly extended and prosperous heri- 
tage." 

The effect of the influx of free-State settlers into 
Kansas soon began to be manifested. What had 
at first been viewed by the Missourians Avith con- 
tempt and derision, and by many at the East with 
indifference, now became to the friends of the 
South a matter of serious alarm, and aroused the 
most malignant passions of the Missouri border 
ruffians. It created a feeling that spread through 
the entire slave-holding community, and excited an 
intense opposition towards a scheme which it was 



184 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

plain to them was to establish an effectual barrier 
to the extension of slavery, and in time exterminate 
the institution. The South saw that it was impo- 
tent in a struggle of this kind with the North ; that 
the latter, with its resources of wealth and popula- 
tion, and its spirit of enterprise, would inevitably 
overwhelm them in this contest. All the powers 
of press and rostrum were brought to bear against 
the new scheme, and bluster and threats were re- 
sorted to in the endeavor to stem the current that 
was to ingulf them. More desperate methods were 
applied on the scene of action, but it is not my pur- 
pose to give any narration of what took place in 
Kansas ; that has already become a part of national 
history. 

Soon the greatest enthusiasm was excited in the 
North. Immense crowds gathered along the route 
of our emigrant companies, and the journeys through 
'New England, and as far west as Chicago, were 
continued ovations. This spirit was shown even in 
the domestic circle. " I know people," said K. W. 
Emerson, " who are making haste to reduce their 
expenses and pay their debts, not with a view to 
new accumulations, but in preparation to save and 
earn for the benefit of Kansas emigrants." 

Loud threats of disunion were indulged in ; and 
the Southern papers teemed with abuse of the Em- 
igrant Aid Company and its supporters. Rewards 
were offered for the head of the author of the Plan.* 

* The following notice was posted in Kansas and Missouri: 

"$200 Reward. We arc authorized by responsible men in 
this neighborhood to offer the above reward for the apprehension 



CHARLESTON MERCURY. 185 

But there were those among them wlio, as the 
movement broadened, contemplated it in a more 
serious light, and gave evidence of their apprecia- 
tion of the real character of the crisis. The follow- 
ing editorial from the Charleston Mercury well rep- 
resents the views of this class : 

''First. By consent of parties, the present contest in Kansas 
is made the turning-point in the destinies of slavery and Aboli- 
tionism.* If the South triumphs, Abolitionism will be defeated 
and shorn of its power for all time. If she is defeated, Abolition- 
ism will grow more insolent and aggressive, until the utter ruin 
of the South is consummated. 

" Second. If the South secures Kansas, she will extend slavery 
into all the territory south of the fortieth parallel of north lati- 
tude, to the Rio Grande, and this, of course, will secure for her 
pent-up institutions of slavery an ample outlet, and restore her 
power in Congress. If the North secures Kansas, the power of 
the South in Congress will gradually be diminished, the States 
of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas, together 
with the adjacent Territories, will gradually become Abolition- 
ized, and the slave population confined to the States east of the 
Mississippi will become valueless. All depends upon the action 
of the present moment." 

and safe delivery into the hands of the squatters of Kansas Ter- 
ritory, of one Eli Thayer, a leading and ruling spirit among the 
Abolitionists of New York and New England. Now, therefore, 
it behooves all good citizens of Kansas Territory and the State 
of Missouri to watch the advent of this agent of Abolitionism; 
to arrest him, and deal with him in such a manner as the enor- 
mity of his crimes and iniquities shall seem to merit. Repre- 
senting all the Abolitionists, he consequently bears all their sins; 
and the blood of Batchelder is upon his head crying aloud for 
expiation at the hands of the people." 

De Bow's Review called the movement "Thayer's Emigration," 
and the Southern press spoke of the Emigrant Aid Company as 
"Eli Thayer & Co." 

* By Abolitionism the editor intended the whole antislavery 
element. He had no reference to Garrisonism. 



CHAPTER XI. 

KANSAS AND JOHN BEOWN. 

Aftee the annoying incidents at Saco and Eidde- 
ford already chronicled we held meetings in Port- 
land, Bath, Brunswick, and Augusta. In the last 
place I made the acquaintance of Governor Morrill 
and of many members of the House and the Senate. 
My object was to secure their aid in providing for 
meetings at their homes in many parts of the State. 
These appointments were made for the autumn of 
the same year. Senator Muzzy, of Bangor, and Sena- 
tor Gushing, of Belfast, prepared meetings for those 
localities, while others arranged for speeches in 
Thomaston, Gamden, Oldtown, Orono, and other 
places. Having planned in this way the fall cam- 
paign of two or three weeks in Maine, we held the 
Augusta meeting. The audience contained most of 
the members of the Legislature, and was presided 
over by a young man, then but little knoAvn, James 
G. Blaine. Mr. Branscomb soon returned to Bos- 
ton to conduct another colony to Kansas, and I 
made my journey westward, speaking in ISTew 
Hampshire, Vermont, and Northern Xew York. 

It would be easy to fill volumes with the inci- 
dents and the interviews at all the places vrhere 
my meetings Avere held. The feeling about Kansas 



"A YANKEE CITY." 187 

was just the same in all localities. There had come 
to be a resolute determination to sustain the free- 
State pioneers already in Kansas by such reinforce- 
ments of men and such contributions of money and 
arms as they might need. It was now apparent in 
every town that the people, without distinction of 
party, had accepted the policy of action pursued 
by the Emigrant Aid Company, and that they had 
no desire to return to the silly work of resolution- 
making. This company bought a hotel at Kansas 
City for the accommodation of our emigrants upon 
their arrival, and were building another and larger 
one at Lawrence. "We had already built several 
steam-mills for the grinding of grain and the man- 
ufacture of lumber. These steam-engines were 
really the eloquent apostles of freedom. 

One day, in 1855, Senator Atchison, with a dozen 
border ruffians, was at the wharf in Kansas City, 
when a river-boat approached with one of our en- 
gines on the deck. Atchison, turning to those on 
his right, asked, " What is that on the deck of the 
steamer T His companions answered, " Senator, 
that is a steam-engine and a steam-boiler." Turn- 
ing to those on his left, he repeated his former 
question. They repeated the reply before given. 

'' You are all a pack of fools ; that is a Yankee 

city going to Kansas, and by ! in six months it 

will cast one hundred Abolition votes." 

During the summer months I made many speech- 
es in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. 
In New Haven I made three speeches at different 
times to secure the raising of the celebrated colony 



188 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

which in the summer of the next year, under the 
lead of Hon. C. B. Lines, founded in Kansas the 
town of Wabaunsee. Professor Silliman, Dr. Wool- 
sey, Dr. Leonard Bacon, and Professor Twining 
were active workers in support of the Plan of 
Freedom, and the first of these became a director 
in the Emigrant Aid Company. 

In my Hartford meetings. Dr. Horace Bushnell 
was active and energetic. He collected over one 
thousand dollars for our treasury and became one 
of our directors. 

In the autumn I returned to Maine and addressed 
thousands of people in haUs, in churches, and some- 
times the lumbermen sitting on logs in the open 
air. Most of the meetings were densely packed, 
but these of the lumbermen had '' scope and verge 
enough." 

The result of these meetings was a valuable ac- 
cession to the free-State pioneers. 

I then returned to Boston, and had a meeting 
with the members of our executive committee. 
Our company had exhausted all its funds, and was 
in debt. Our worthy treasurer had advanced 
money up to his fixed limit, $6000, from his own 
funds. Some of the committee were entirely dis- 
couraged, and even ready to abandon the enter- 
prise, on account of the pecuniary straits in which 
the company was placed. " This work," they said, 
^' is arduous, and from lack of money very wearing 
and perplexing. Money must be had directly, or 
the work of saving Kansas discontinued. The most 
unwise act we ever did was the surrender of the 



REPENTANCE. 189 

old charter, which would have furnished ample 
means on a business basis. This depending on 
charity is annoying and humiliating." 

In reply, I told the committee that it was very 
pleasing to me to hear from their own lips their 
confession of error in substituting the charity plan 
for the old business charter. Had we retained the 
latter, and made investments in Kansas City which 
our own w^ork would build up, we could easily have 
become a very formidable power against slavery, 
not only in the Territories, but in the States as 
w^ell. But as the choice had long ago been made, 
and as we had progressed so far under the false 
method, we could not now change it ; that I was 
not an " Immediativist " ; that the work must be 
neither suspended nor discontinued, nor even hin- 
dered, for the want of money ; that I preferred 
very much to continue gathering colonies, but if 
necessary I would raise as much money as they 
w^ere in need of. Accordingly, without dela}^, I 
went to ]S"ew York City on that mission. The 
narration of the events there, and of my success in 
raising the needed contributions, will be recorded 
in the next chapter. 

At this point I will introduce an episode pertain- 
ing to our friend Amos A. Lawrence. 

While I w^as in Maine, John Brown found his 
way to Boston and induced Mr. Lawrence to fur- 
nish him money to pay his expenses to Kansas. 

I first became acquainted with Amos A. Law- 
rence early in June, 1854, directly after my return 
from the conference with Mr. Greelev in New 



190 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

York City. From that time to the end of the 
Kansas struggle he was treasurer of our company. 
Like his father, Amos Lawrence, he was distin- 
guished for his practical philanthropy, his sterling 
integrity, his fearless and conscientious discharge 
of duty, and his sound and conservative views upon 
all subjects. He styled himself a ^' Hunker Whig." 
He voted for Bell and Everett in 1860, and was as 
far removed from sympathy with radical Abolition- 
ists as any man in the Union. But in the plan of 
the Emigrant Aid Company he was happy to find 
a way of circumventing the purposes of slavery 
without violating the law, the Constitution, or the 
Union. He became at once an earnest, fearless, 
and hopeful worker in the cause of free Kansas. 
His cheerful courage was always an inspiration to 
the lovers of our cause, even in its greatest per- 
plexities and dangers. It was easy for almost any 
one who professed a desire to aid in the work of 
making Kansas a free State to secure his entire 
confidence. If this were a weakness, it leaned so 
decidedly towards right and justice of purpose 
that no good man can judge him harshly. 

But his confidence in men was sometimes abused. 
There were several instances of this in the course 
of our struggle, but the most notable one was in 
the case of John Brown. Mr. Lawrence furnished 
him the money which enabled him to pay his fare 
to Kansas late in the year 1855. Subsequently he 
contributed for his use in the Territory, and for 
travelling outside of it, many important sums. He 
also furnished about one thousand dollars to pay a 



A. A. LAWRENCE ON JOHN BROWN. 191 

mortoraffe on Brown's home at North Elba, IST. Y. 
For one or two years he regarded Brown as an 
honest man and a useful aid to the free-State cause. 
At length, however, he learned how his confidence 
had been abused, and from that time no one ever 
denounced the Pottawatomie assassin in more vig- 
orous English. The following remarks of Mr. 
Lawrence were made before the Massachusetts 
Historical Society, and can be found in their pub- 
lished proceedings for May, 1884. 
Mr. Amos A. Lawrence said : 

"When Eii Thaj-er obtained the charter of the New England 
Emigrant Aid Society, and began to preach up the Kansas cru- 
sade, the organization was completed here in Boston; and Dr. 
Robinson, of Fitchburg, was chosen to be the Territorial agent, 
Charles H. Branscorab look charge of the emigrant parties, and 
S. C. Pomeroy was financial agent in Kansas. 

" The enthusiasm increased; parties were formed all over the 
Northern States. The Emigrant Aid Company undertook to 
give character and direction to the whole. This society was to 
be lo3^al to the Government under all circumstances ; it was to 
support the party of law and order, and it was to make Kansas 
a free State by bona fide settlement, if at all. Charles Robin- 
son had the requisite qualities to direct this movement. He had 
had great experience in the troubles of California. He was 
cool, judicious, and entirely devoid of fear, and in every respect 
worthy of the confidence reposed in him by the settlers and the 
society. He was obliged to submit to great hardship and injus- 
tice, chiefly through the imbecility of the United States Govern- 
ment agents. He was imprisoned, his house was burned, and 
his life was often threatened; yet he never bore arms, nor omit- 
ted to do whatever he thought to be his duty. He sternly held 
the people to their lo3"alty to the Government, against the argu- 
ments and example of the ' higher law ' men, who were always 
armed, who were not real settlers, and who were bent on bring- 
ing about a border war, which they hoped would extend to the 



192 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

older States. The policy of the New England Society, carried 
out by Robinson and those who acted with him in Kansas, was 
finally successful and triumphant. David Atchison and his 
hordes retired from the scene; the few negro slaves who had 
been carried into the Territory disappeared, and now (1884) the 
State contains one million one hundred thousand inhabitants, 
without paupers and without beggars. A whole generation is 
coming up who do not know the taste of ardent spirits. This 
has always been a favorite theory and practice of Robinson; 
and now they have gone beyond him, and have inserted prohi- 
bition in the State Constitution, and elected their State officers 
on that issue. 

" But what shall we say of John Brown? His course was the 
opposite of Robinson's. . . . He was alwaj^s armed; he was al 
ways disloyal to the United States Government and to all gov- 
ernment except to what he called the ' higher law.' He was 
always ready to shed blood, and he always did shed it without 
remorse; for 'without blood,' as he often said, 'there can be no 
remission.' . . . 

"In the night of May 23, 1856, Mr. Doyle and his two sons 
were taken from their beds at Pottawatomie, and caused to walk 
one hundred yards from their house, when the fatlier was shot 
dead by Brown, while the sons were stabbed and hacked to 
death with straight navy swords in the hands of Brown's sons. 
Mr. Wilkinson, who was taking care of a sick wife, was obliged 
to leave her and go with the midnight party, who brutally mur- 
dered him, not so far from his wife but that she heard the strug- 
gle and the final shot. 

" William Sherman was another victim of these midnight as- 
sassins, who were not then known, but who are now known per- 
fectly. The evidence is complete. Professor Spring, of the 
State University of Kansas, is preparing a work upon the early 
history of that State, which will contain the truth, with all the 
proofs; so that hereafter there can be no such statements made 
as have deceived nearly a whole generation. 

" It fell to me to give John Brown his first letter to Kansas, in- 
troducing him to Governor Robinson, and authorizing him to 
employ him and to draw on me for his compensation if he could 
make him useful in the work of the Emigrant Aid Compan)^ 
But very soon Governor Robinson wrote that he would not em- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 193 

ploy bim, as he was unreliable, and 'would as soon shoot a 
United States officer as a border ruffian.' 

"When he was a prisoner at Harper's Ferry I wrote to Gov- 
ernor Wise, advising his release, on the ground that he was a 
monomaniac, and that his execution would make him a martyr. 
The answer to this letter was very creditable to Governor 
Wise. . . . 

"John Brown had no enemies in New England, but many 
friends and admirers. He was constantly receiving money from 
them. They little knew what use he was making of it, for he 
deceived everybody. If he had succeeded in his design at Har- 
per's Ferry of exciting a servile insurrection, the country would 
have stood aghast with horror; his would have been anything 
but a martyr's crown." 

John Brown has now very few admirers except 
the congenial anarchists and JSTihiUsts, who despise 
all law, and hate all the restraints of government. 
Mr. Lawrence's estimate of Brown above given has 
been generally sustained. Abraham Lincoln, in his 
Cooper Institute speech, said, with his characteris- 
tic " charity for all " : 

"John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a slave insur- 
rection. It was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt 
among slaves, in which the slaves refused to participate. In 
fact, it was so absurd that the slaves, in all their ignorance, saw 
plainly enough it could not succeed. That affair, in its philoso- 
phy, corresponds with the many attempts related in history at 
the assassination of kings and emperors. An enthusiast broods 
over the oppression of a people till he fancies himself commis- 
sioned by Heaven to liberate them. He ventures the attempt, 
which ends in little else than his own execution. Orsini's at- 
tempt on Louis Napoleon and John Brown's attempt at Harper's 
Ferry were, in their philosophy, the same. The eagerness to 
cast blame on Old England in the one place and on Nev/ England 
in the other does not disprove the sameness of the two things." 

The Chicago Eepublican convention which nom- 
9 



194 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

inated Mr. Lincoln for the Presidency in 1860 
unanimously resolved that Brown was one of the 
greatest of criminals. 

Thaddeus Stevens said, "Brown ought to be 
hung for attempting to capture Virginia in the 
way he did." 

Henry. Wilson said, " John Brown is a d d 

old fool." 

JSTicolay and Ilay, in the Century Magazine, have 
proved Senator Wilson's estimate of him correct. 

When Brown made his invasion of Virginia, and 
during his trial, conviction, and execution, I was a 
member of Congress, and had the means of know- 
ing the opinions of other members. There was not 
one of that body who considered his punishment 
unjust. A few, however, were of the opinion that 
it would have been better to have put him in a 
mad-house for life. This method would have pre- 
vented the grotesque efforts of a few of his sympa- 
thizers and supporters to parade him before the 
country as a " martyr." 

But these anarchists were ever ready with pen 
and voice to extol any mental or moral deformity, 
especially tending towards the ruin of our Govern- 
ment. The owner of a dime museum exults in the 
possession of physical monstrosities. So the dis- 
unionists had a wonderful affection for cranks and 
monomaniacs. They could see nothing to admire 
in men like Horace Mann, Salmon P. Chase, and 
Eev. Dr. Bellows — illustrious examples of high 
mental and moral attainments. Such men were 
denounced unsparingly in the columns of the Lib- 



JOHN BROWN'S CRIMES. 195 

erator, as also the other great antislavery leaders 
who favored practical methods. This '^ despised 
handful of Abolitionists" w^ere eager to hail the 
Pottawatomie assassin as " martyr and saint." 

John Brow^n arrived in Kansas nearly two years 
after the conflict there against slavery began. He 
w^as a great injury to the free-State cause, and to 
the free-State settlers. He said, " I have not come 
to make Kansas free, but to get a shot at the 
South." He wished to begin a civil war. He was 
the pupil of the Garrisonites and afterwards their 
god. He never had any property in Kansas which 
might be subject to retaliation and reprisal for his 
crimes. Skulking about mider various disguises 
and pretences, he left the free-State settlers to suf- 
fer for his numerous outrages. At length they 
compelled him to leave the Territory. 

The last instalment of Missouri vengeance for 
his many murders, raids, and robberies, and for the 
subsequent thieving invasions of Lane, fell upon 
Law^rence in the Quantrell raid, and cost her the 
lives of one hundred and eighty-three of her citi- 
zens. 

The following extract from a letter written by 
me to the J^ew Yorh Sun, and published in that 
journal E'ovember 27, 1887, gives some details of 
this " hero's " career. 

" It is charity to rank Brown as a monomaniac in the same list 
with Orsini, Guiteau, Booth, and Freeman. But his admirers 
do not allow this, for it would ruin him as a 'saint and martyr.' 
They contend not only that he was sane, but that he was a great 
moral hero. If we admit his sanity, we must then regard him 



196 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

either as a felon or a fiend. After he had proved himself a 
robber, murderer, and traitor, and while almost everybody was 
denouncing him as such, the Garrison disunionists, under whose 
tuition he had matured, immediately began his apotheosis. The 
files of the Liberator and the reported eulogies of Wendell Phil- 
lips, delivered wherever he could get a hearing, are abundant 
proof of this fact. Themselves monomaniacs, they were delight- 
ed to discover a hero so well adapted to their characters and 
tastes. 

"These are the men responsible for the terrible growth of 
anarchy in this country. They made a deity of the prince of 
anarchists, a colossus in crime, compared with whom the men 
recently executed at Chicago were only pygmies, 

" It is no wonder, then, that the anarchists of to-day acknowl- 
edge their rightful king, and sing at their nocturnal conventions 
John Brown songs. This is the most appropriate commentary 
we have yet had upon the character of Garrison and Phillips, 
' martyr and saint.' Their eulogies found echoes in feeble pulpit 
utterances and occasionally in public lectures. In this w^ay the 
deadly virus of anarchy infected and poisoned public sentiment. 

"But what did John Brown do ? In Kansas he dragged from 
their beds at midnight three men and two boys and hacked them 
in pieces with tw^o-edged cleavers, in such way that the massacre 
was reported to be the work of wild Indians. If any butcher 
in New York City should hack and slash to death his own liogs 
and steers as John Brown hacked and slashed to death these 
men and boys in Kansas, he would be arrested and imprisoned 
without delay. After this Brown slew an unarmed, inoffensive 
farmer in Missouri. In his murderous raid at Harper's Ferry, 
the first man he slew was a negro engaged in the discharge of 
his duty at the freight station there. For some weeks before 
this raid he had been wandering about in Virginia, trying to 
enlist negroes in his little rebellion. In one place he professed 
to be a geologist. In several places he professed to be a Dr. Mc- 
Lain — a specialist in hernia. He examined many slaves for this 
disease, by consent of masters, to whom he said that negroes 
were more subject to it than any other class. In a Presbyterian 
house he was a Presbyterian minister. He remained one day 
and two nights and examined over forty slaves. He next visited 
a Baptist family, and there professed to be a Baptist minister. 



BROWN TO BE DICTATOR. 197 

He had written out a plan of government for the South, which 
was once in possession of Amos A. Lawrence, of Boston. This 
plan provided that Brown should be military commander-in- 
chief in the negro government about to be established. 

" To the above should be added the robbing of stores in Kan- 
sas, the stealing of horses, the invasion of Missouri, and the steal- 
ing of about $4000 worth of oxen, mules, wagons, harness, and 
such valuable and portable property as he could find. He was a 
merciless and most unscrupulous jayhawker. 

"The above is a faint picture of the 'noble John Brown.' 
Much more of the same import could be given, but this is enough, 
except for Anarchists who wish to become unrivalled experts in 
crime. 

"After his midnight murders in Kansas, all the people about 
Ossawatomie assembled to express their indignation and to take 
measures to bring the ' fiends ' to justice. Here on most friendly 
terms met the free-State and the slave-State men. In the over- 
shadowing gloom of such terrible crime, all partisan issues were 
forgotten. The underlying brotherhood of man asserted itself 
in unity against an enemy of the human race. But what enemy ? 
John Brown, with characteristic lying, denied that he was pres- 
ent at this massacre, or that he had anything to do with it. 
No fact in history is now better established than the fact that he 
was father of the crime and the leader of the assassins." 

The editorial comments of the Sun upon this let- 
ter places a proper estimate upon the character of 
this noted anarchist : 

A HISTORICAL VIEW OF JOHN BROWN. 

"We publish elsewhere a letter presenting a new view of 
John Brown, or a view which seems new in these days, though 
it was taken by many conservative and sensible men of this 
country at the time of his mad attempt to wage war against 
slavery on his own account. 

"The letter, it must be understood, is not written by one of 
the old apologists for slavery, but by a man who from first to 
last was a bitter opponent of slavery, and who was greatly instru- 
mental in bringing about its exclusion from Kansas. As early 



198 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

as 1854, when Mr Eli Thayer was a Representative in the Mas- 
sachusetts Legislature from the town of Worcester, the historic 
centre of the antislavcry agitation, he conceived the plan of 
frustrating the purpose of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
by encouraging and assisting emigration to Kansas from the free 
States of the North. His scheme was to fill up the Territory 
with settlers who would vote 'to save Kansas to freedom,' and 
for years he gave himself up to zealous and self-sacrificing efforts 
to carry it into successful execution. 

"Mr. Thayer therefore sympathized with John Brown in his 
detestation of slavery and dread of its advancing political power, 
and yet he classes him with John Most and with the anarchists 
so justly hanged at Chicago the other day. Instead of having 
been the 'great moral hero' his admirers of this time would 
make him, Mr. Thayer, who speaks from intimate personal 
knowledge of the man and his career in Kansas, describes John 
Brown as a 'felon or a fiend,' a 'robber, murderer, and traitor,' 
and gives instances of his conduct in Kansas and in Virginia to 
justify the truth of the description. 

"Abraham Lincoln, in his famous speech at Cooper Institute 
in February, 1860, a few mouths before his first nomination for 
the Presidency, agreed with Mr. Thayer in ranking John Brown 
with the monomaniacs who resort to assassination for the cure 
of what seem to them social and political evils. ' Orsini's at- 
tempt on Louis Napoleon, and John Brown's attempt at Harper's 
Ferry,' said Lincoln, ' were, in their philosophy, the same '; and 
he further described the Harper's Ferry affair as 'so absurd that 
the slaves, in all their ignorance, saw plainly enough it could not 
succeed.' These words, too, were uttered in the February after 
the hanging of John Brown at Charlestown, in Virginia, on the 
2d of December, 1859, and they expressed a sentiment so general 
at the North that the great Republican leader felt it necessary to 
speak them so emphatically. 

"At that time the Abolitionists, always a small and a detested 
body of fanatics, had reached the firm conclusion that their only 
hope lay in the dissolution of the Union. They were out-and- 
out disunionists, trampling on the Constitution at their meetings 
as ' a league with death and a covenant with hell,' and declaring 
that ' there was no issue of any importance except the dissolu- 
tion of the Union,' For that reason they did all they could to 



THE NEW YORK SUN. 199 

put back Mr. Thayer's efforts to make Kansas a free State. They 
wanted to see slavery so far extended that the North would be 
forced into disunionism as a measure of revenge and self-pro- 
tection, and the war of secession would be started by the North 
rather than the South. Therefore they were quick to make of 
John Brown a martyr to their cause, in the hope of inflaming 
the hostility between the two parts of the Union. But Lincoln 
and the Republican party refused to accept their hero, and were 
consequently even more bitterly assailed than before by the 
Abolitionists as accessaries and partners in the great ' crime of 
slavery.' 

"These are doubtless the facts of history, and Mr. Thayer does 
the public a service in calling attention to them at a time when 
the anarchists are attempting to justify their savagery by point- 
ing to John Brown as a great moral hero, whose memory is re- 
vered by his countrymen and honored by the whole world." 

Another statement in regard to Brown's career 
had been made b}^ me in a letter to the Boston 
Herald, published August 22, 1887, correcting a 
passage in Nicolay and Hay's " Life of Lincoln." 
The following is an extract from this letter : 

"These writers say, on page 517: 'In association, habit, lan- 
guage, and conduct, he was clean, but coarse ; honest, but rude.' 

" Two circumstances, however, indicate that he was practising 
a deception upon the committees and the public. He entered 
into a contract with a blacksmith in Collinsville, Ct., to man- 
ufacture for him one thousand pikes of a certain pattern, to be 
completed in ninety days, and paid five hundred and fifty dollars 
on the contract. There is no record that he mentioned this mat- 
ter to any committee. His proposed Kansas minute-men were 
only one hundred in number, and the pikes could not be for 
them. His explanation to the blacksmith that they would be 
a good weapon of defence for Kansas settlers, was clearly a 
subterfuge. These pikes, ordered about March 23, 1857, were 
without doubt intended for his Virginia invasion, and, in fact, 
the identical lot, finished after long delay, under the same con- 
tract, were shipped to him in September, 1859, and were actually 



200 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

used in his Harper's Ferry attempt. The other circumstance is 
that, about the time of his contract for the pikes, he also, witli- 
out the knowledge of committees or friends, engaged a worthless 
adventurer named Forbes to go "West and give military instruc- 
tions to his company, a measure neither useful nor practicable for 
Kansas' defence. These two acts may be taken as the first prep- 
aration for Harper's Ferry. 

" These are constructive lies. But John Brown made use of 
many others in his preparation for the Virginia raid, which were 
in no way doubtful or equivocal. 

"1, He came to me in Worcester to solicit a contribution of 
arms for the defence of some Kansas settlements which he said 
he knew were soon to be attacked by parties already organized 
in Missouri for that purpose. Not doubting his word, I gave 
him all the arms I had, in value about five hundred dollars. 

"2. Under the same false pretence he secured another contri- 
bution from Ethan Allen & Co., manufacturers of arms in this 
city. These arms also were never taken to Kansas, but were 
captured at Harper's Ferry. 

" 3. Before his attack upon the United States arsenal he spent 
several weeks in Virginia. He pretended to be a mineralogist, 
and went about with a hammer breaking off the corners of rocks. 
Under the pretext of seeking for copper he found opportunities 
for trying to enlist slaves in his little rebellion. The representa- 
tive in Congress from the Harper's Ferry district gave me these 
facts. 

"4. Under the same false pretence of aiding the settlers in 
Kansas he procured funds from several Kew York merchants, 
one of whom says that he gave him fifty dollars. 

"5. In 1858 he made a raid into Missouri, murdered Mr. Crews, 
a peaceable old farmer, and took away eleven slaves, with about 
four thousand dollars' worth of oxen, mules, wagons, harness, 
saddles, and other propert)^ As soon as he had got outside of 
the State, he sent agents in all directions to solicit aid to get the 
eleven negroes to Canada. He was from December to April get- 
ting them through. This slow movement was doubtless for the 
purpose of prolonging as much as possible the time for his agents 
to procure funds. His plunder and his collections went, proba- 
bly, to increase his Harper's Ferry fund. 

"6. He often asserted that in the above raid he liberated sev- 



*' CRANKS." 201 

eral slaves without bloodshed and without the use of weapons. 
It is proved that Mr. Crews was killed in that raid. 

"7. He repeatedly said that he was not present at the Potta- 
watomie midnight massacre. It is proved that he was present 
as commander of the assassins." 

Every great and long-continued agitation of the 
public mind is certain to develop " cranks." Tliey 
are the foam upon the billows of public excitement. 
They do not make the billows, but are made by 
them. A very young child might think these 
white-caps were really the storm-king, raising and 
controlling the billows, guiding and governing the 
storm. Such frothy interlopers had reached Kan- 
sas near the close of the struggle. They did little 
but harm. 

Professor Spring, in his " Kansas," has assigned 
them their proper place in history. 
9* 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE SINEYv^S OF WAK. 

In accordance with the plan set forth in the pre- 
ceding chapter, I went directly to ISTew York City 
to raise the money necessary to enable the company 
to continue its Kansas work. Upon my arrival I 
found Simeon Draper and George W. Blunt, and 
stated to them the need of immediate help m mon- 
e}^. " How much ?" said Mr. Blunt. I replied, " Some- 
where from thirty to fifty thousand dollars ; and 
without much delay." " How do you propose to 
raise such a sum ?" ^' If you will get me a chance 
to speak to twenty or thirty antislaverj^ men of 
means, this evening, I will then show you how the 
money is to be secured. Can you get these men 
together ?" After Mr. Blunt and Mr. Draper had 
conferred for a few minutes, Mr. Blunt said that 
he would invite a meeting in the parlors of his 
house at eight o'clock. I was pleased with the offer, 
and promised to be promptly at the place. Mr. 
Blunt faithfully kept his word, for I found in his 
parlors, at the time appointed, about thirty promi- 
nent and wealthy business and professional men. 
Without any delay I began to set forth the imme- 
diate wants of our company ; to give a history of 
the work already done ; to assure my hearers that 



MY APPEAL.— WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 203 

nothing was now needed to secure our success but 
a few thousand dollars more for immediate use ; 
that ]^ew York merchants were more interested 
pecuniarily in this result than were any other peo- 
ple in the Union ; that if they would compare their 
sales of goods to Kentucky with those to Ohio, 
they would need no further argument to show that 
their money interest was all on the side of making 
Kansas free ; that now it was also to be decided 
whether we should have freedom or slavery as our 
national pohcy; that the time for resolutions and 
for the friendly discussion of this matter with 
slave-holders had gone by, and that slavery, having 
been organized by Calhoun in 1833 for offensive 
and defensive action, was now proud and strong, 
from its continued victories, and hostile to all 
discussion and to any compromises ; that the whole 
question was a question of strength and endurance, 
and that the party conquering in this struggle 
would ever after govern the country. I had come 
to ask them whether it should be of freedom or of 
slavery. I assured them of the conservative views 
of our company, and that under all provocations 
we should sustain the Government and adhere to 
the Constitution and the Union ; and that under 
this protection there was room enough for all our 
work and for the triumphant success of the free- 
State cause. 

After my address, which occupied a little more 
than an hour, a young man, tall and thin, arose and 
began to speak as follows : '' Ever since my Castle 
Garden speech, you know I have been called a 



204 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Hunker Whig. Now, what reason you had to sup- 
pose that such a man would care whether slavery 
were extended or restricted I do not know. There- 
fore I do not know your reasons for inviting me to 
attend this meeting. But you did invite me, and 
I have come. I am glad that I am here, and I 
thank you for calling me. I have heard many 
speeches, on many occasions, upon the slavery ques- 
tion ; but never until now have I listened to any 
practical elucidation of the subject. Like thou- 
sands of others, I have been waiting for an oppor- 
tunity to contend successfully against slavery 
without violating the laws or sacrificing the Con- 
stitution and the Union. Such an opportunity is 
now presented. I rejoice in it, and shall embrace 
it. Now, though I am called a ' Hunker Whig,' and 
though I am poor, for I am not worth four thou- 
sand dollars, I joyfulh^ give my check to the Emi- 
grant Aid Company for one thousand dollars." 

This speaker was William M. Evarts. Only a 
few years ago he sent word to me that though he 
seemed at the time to lose his balance, when he 
gave a quarter of all he was worth to the Boston 
Aid Company, he was very wilhng to admit that it 
was the best investment he ever made. 

With such a beginning, success was already cer- 
tain. Other subscribers to the fund speedily fol- 
lowed Mr. Evarts. I addressed five meetings in- 
New York City and as many in Brooklyn. Most 
of these were called by written invitations to gen- 
tlemen who were able to contribute to the fund 
without inconvenience. Henry H. Elliott, George 



ABLE SUPPORTERS. 205 

W. Blunt, David Dudley Field, Thaddeus Hyatt, 
Horace B. Clafliu, Rollin Sanford, Bo wen & MacKa- 
mee, Cyrus Curtis, Moses H. Grinnell, E. D. Mor- 
gan, D. Randolph Martin, Marshall O. Roberts, and 
many others, subscribed liberally. H. B. Clafiin 
and Rollin Sanford at first put down their names 
for one thousand dollars each ; but they attended 
all the meetings, and, without further solicitation, 
each of them raised his subscription to six thou- 
sand dollars. Several others followed this exam- 
ple. Bowen & MacNamee at first subscribed &Ye 
hundred dollars, but they raised this sum to three 
thousand. 

Charles H. Branscomb, of whom I have already 
spoken, accompanied me in this campaign for mon- 
ey. He was of great service in preparing meetings 
by carrying invitations, and by speaking of the 
condition of things in Kansas to such as w^ere desir- 
ous of hearing the Avords of an eye-witness. 

One Friday evening we went over to the meet- 
ing in the vestry of Henry Ward Beecher's church. 
Before the meeting was opened Mr. Beecher ob- 
served me in the congregation. We had met sev- 
eral times in the railway-cars, when each was on 
his lecturing tour, and had often conversed about 
the Kansas fight. As soon as he saw me he came 
over to my seat and said, " Now, Thayer, as soon 
as this meeting is opened I want you to tell us 
something about the chances for Kansas ; will you 
speak?" I told him that it was my business to 
speak wherever there was anybody to hear. " How 
long shall I speak ?" " Say fifteen minutes." He 



206 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

then opened the meeting and called upon me. I 
began my address and went on as rapidly as possi- 
ble for the time allotted, and began to draw my 
remarks to a close. "Go on, go on !" came from 
all parts of the vestry. I looked to Mr. Beecher 
inquiringly. " Go on for an hour," he answered. 
Accordingly, I continued my address to the end of 
the meeting. After this, Mr. Beecher invited me 
to occupy the entire time of the next Friday even- 
ing vestry meeting, which I did. In consequence 
of these addresses Mr. Beecher's congregation made 
contributions of several thousand dollars to the 
company. 

One day I received at the Astor House, where I 
was staying, an invitation to dine at the house of a 
Mr. Jackson, on Bond Street. I accepted the invi- 
tation and went, though I had never met my host. 
The invitation, however, was explained when I met 
there my friend, Eev. Dr. Horace Bushnell. Under 
my plate at dinner I found Mr. Jackson's check for 
the Emigrant Aid Company, for one thousand dol- 
lars. This, too, was Dr. Bushnell's work, for Mr. 
Jackson had attended none of my meetings. 

William Cullen Bryant was also a contributor to 
the amount (I think) of one thousand dollars. The 
columns of his paper, the Neio Yorh Evening Post, 
were ever open to any appeal for the interests of 
free Kansas. Mr. Bryant was also ready, with his 
own pen, to advance by his logical and eloquent 
arguments the cause of patriotism and good gov- 
ernment, for which our pioneers were there con- 
tending. I often called upon him in his sanctum, 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 207 

and usually suggested something to be written 
about. I was never disappointed, for a suitable 
editorial was certain to follow the interview. 

One day I went to Mr. Bryant and said : " Since 
the Evening Post is a paper of the highest financial 
authority, it seems to me, Mr. Bryant, that you 
can very much aid our Kansas cause by attacking 
the credit of Missouri. Why, more than the Yank- 
tons and Sioux, is she vv^orthy of being trusted?" 
Mr. Bryant expressed great interest in this view of 
the case, and said that he would attend to it. It 
was my purpose to make the holders of Missouri 
bonds active in preventing the invasions and out- 
rages of the border ruffians. The very next day 
Mr. Bryant began his editorials. The following is 
an extract from his second article on Missouri 
bonds. Many others followed. 

Wew Yorh Evening Post, February 14, 1856. 
Editorial headed "Missouri Credit," after stating 
that "immediately after the invasion of Kansas 
the Missouri stocks began to decline," continues : 

" It will be for the better part of the people of Missouri to 
consider whither this new code of political morals is carrying 
them. They have a large debt on their hands, either already 
contracted, or authorized and in the way of being contracted — 
the absolute debt of their State amounting to sixteen millions of 
dollars, and the bonds for which the State is security, on account 
of the south-west branch of the Pacific Railroad, amounting to 
three millions more. There are nearly four millions and a half 
of bonds yet to be issued, and the State throws them into the 
market with this serious drawback on its credit — its six per cent. 
stocks down to 86, while those of Ohio, with almost the same 
amount of debt on her hands, stand at 110. 

"Let there be another inroad made into Kansas on a like er- 



208 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

rand with that which tooli that direction last November, and the 
credit of ilissouri would sink yet lower. Capitalists would then 
as soon think of takiu^ the bonds issued by authority of a coun- 
cil of the Digger Indians, or buying stock issued by the chief of 
the Pawnees, Men who have no regard for the rights of others 
cannot be expected to pay their debts. 

" The city of St. Louis contains a class of merchants of the 
highest character for probity. They, no doubt, hold the reputa- 
tion of their State dear, and they certainly have a great stake in 
its prosperity. They must feel acutely the disgrace which the 
course of a certain class of their population has brought upon 
the State — they must be sensible to what extent the material in- 
terests of Missouri are dependent upon the good opinion of man- 
kind, and how deeply the interests of their own flourishing city 
are involved in those of the State. It will be for them, and for 
those who, like them, are aware of the mischief, to devise the 
remedy." 

The effect of these editorials of Mr. Bryant was 
to cause a rapid decline in Missouri bonds. 

By such writing, a great commotion was made, 
not only among the bond-holders, who immediately 
demanded that the outrages against Kansas should 
be discontinued without delay, but also among the 
merchants of St. Louis, many of whom were men 
of high character, who keenly felt the disgrace of 
their State. There is no doubt of the good effect of 
these articles in restraining the lawlessness of the 
Missouri border. They seem also to have had a pow- 
erful political effect in St. Louis, for at the next elec- 
tion, to the surprise of everybody, that city elected, 
for the first time, a mayor friendly to free Kansas. 

While still engaged in my pecuniary work, I 
went one Sunday to attend the meeting of Rev. 
Mr. Frothingham. As soon as the reverend gen- 
tleman had ascended the platform and observed 



H. B. CLAFLIN AND OTHERS. 209 

me, he came to my seat and said, " Mr. Thayer, I 
want my people to hear all about Kansas, and I 
want you to occupy every minute of the time al- 
lowed for my sermon, which will be all ready for 
use one week later." I thankfully accepted the 
invitation, and occupied his entire hour. This was 
a help to our cause of about one thousand dollars. 

A dozen years after the events above recorded, 
Mr. H. B. Clafiin said that the six thousand dollars 
which he paid to the Emigrant Aid Company in 
185G had been several times repaid by the excess 
of profit on goods sold to merchants in Kansas and 
Kansas City over what it would have been if 
slavery had prevailed in that State. 

Since writing the above I have found the follow- 
ing circular of invitation, which furnishes the names 
of several other contributors. To these should be 
added the names of G. P. Putnam and Parke God- 
win: 

"New York, January 17, 1856. 

"Sir, — You are respectfully invited to attend a meeting of 
gentlemen to be held at the small chapel of the University, on 
Monday, the 21st inst., at 7.30 p.m., for the purpose of consider- 
ing the interests involved in the settlement of Kansas. 

"Mr. Thayer, of Massachusetts, will present a full statement of 
the present condition of the settlements in that Territory, and of 
the movements hitherto made and now in progress for promoting 
emigration under the auspices of the 'Emigrant Aid Society'; and 
the claim of the cause upon the countenance and aid of our citi- 
zens will be advocated by that gentleman and others. Yours re- 
spectfully, 

" Cyrus Curtis, Benjamin W. Bonnet, 

Moses H. Grinnell, Le Grand Lockwood, 
George W. Blunt, John Bigelow, 
Simeon Draper, William M. Evarts." 



210 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Frederic Law Olmstead contributed, and sent to 
the free-State men in Kansas, a brass howitzer, 
which was of great service, and is still preserved as 
a memento of the great conflict. 

Early in April, having succeeded in raising suffi- 
cient money to answer the purposes of the Emi- 
grant Aid Company, I returned to my proper work 
of raising colonies. 

I had scarcely entered upon this work vv'hen af- 
fairs in Kansas had assumed a new phase. Charles 
Eobinson, G. "W". Brown, and several other leaders 
of the free-State party had been arrested for trea- 
son and imprisoned. The Missouri River was soon 
closed to our emigrant parties and some of these 
who had nearly reached Kansas were robbed of 
their property and sent back down the river. 
These were heroic measures on the part of the 
pro-slavery party. 

The arrest and imprisonment of Eobinson and the 
others were resorted to for the purpose of provok- 
ing the free-State men to fight the United States 
troops who were guarding the prisoners, in order 
to secure their rescue. The makers of this plot very 
wisely left James H. Lane, John Brown, and James 
Montgomery free, so that the}^ might undertake 
this work against the Government. 

Lane immediately set about preparing for the 
"rescue." He went even to Ohio to raise men 
for that purpose. In August he returned to Law- 
rence alone, after having promised to raise fifty 
thousand men in Ohio and Indiana. He stiU cher- 
ished, however, the purpose of " rescue," and sent 



BORDER RUFFIANS DESPERATE. 211 

a letter to Robinson offering to set him free by 
force. Robinson very plainly gave him to under- 
stand that he had better mind his own business. 
On the 10th of September the prisoners were lib- 
erated, and the danger of attempted rescue had 
passed away. 

There was also a raid upon Lawrence in May. 
The company's large stone hotel was burned, print- 
ing-presses destroyed, and much private property 
ruined or stolen. This infamous work was done 
under the direction of a court to destroy certain 
buildings as nuisances. 

Taken all in all, the recent action of the slave- 
holders was proof to every sound mind that their 
era of utter desperation had arrived. I could then 
plainly foresee the end of the conflict. So, happy 
as the Apostle Paul when he came in sight of the 
three taverns, like him I " thanked God and took 
courage." So far in this contest, the slave-holders 
had accomplished nothing whatever by fair means. 
Disheartened and disgusted, they tried the impris- 
onment of our leaders, hoping that the free-State 
men, under such a provocation, might become reb- 
els and tight the Government. The wisdom and 
coolness of Robinson prevented this action and 
made the whole plan an utter failure. The raid 
upon Lawrence and the blockade of the Missouri 
River, added to the false imprisonment of our lead- 
ing men, aroused the indignation of the North to 
such an extent that the freedom of Kansas was 
secure. From this time no further effort was re- 
quired to raise colonies. They raised themselves. 



212 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Matters had now taken such form in Kansas and 
the North that the slave poAver could not escape 
defeat. 

It was necessary only to give to the free States 
such machinery as would enable them to execute 
their will, and the fate of slavery would be sealed 
and freedom made national. 

To secure and put into operation such machinery, 
I began to write letters to the Kansas leagues that 
there must be a convention of delegates to elect a 
IS'ational Kansas Committee, whose location should 
be Chicago, and that another suitable committee 
should be chosen to organize the free States for 
supplying the first committee with money, arms, 
clothing, transportation, and all that the reasonable 
wants of the pioneers, upon their journey or in the 
Territory, might require. The convention was also 
to provide a passage through Iowa and Nebraska 
for several colonies now wearily marching over 
that long and tiresome route. 

This plan was assented to, and the time and 
place of the convention set for June 20th, at Cleve- 
land. Hon. William Barnes was to attend to the 
matter if any change was found necessary as to 
time or place. It was desired that Governor Reed- 
er, who had escaped from Kansas, should preside 
at this convention. But, unfortunately, he could 
not get there until the 26th of June. Of this Mr. 
Barnes informed me. It was impossible for me to 
attend the convention at that time, and I therefore 
replied to him as follows : 






CLEVELAND CONVENTION. 213 

" W0RCK6TKK, June 20, 1S5G. 

** Mr. Barnes: 

"Dear Sir, — Much to my regret, I shall be unable to attend 
the convention at Cleveland on the 26th, as I had previously en- 
gaged to speak in Philadelphia on the evening of the 27th. I 
will submit to you a few suggestions : 

*' The general outfitting depot should be in Chicago. 

"There should also be in that place the treasurer, two secre- 
taries, and a majority or a quorum of the board of directors. 

"There should be an assistant treasurer and secretary and 
board of directors in each free State, and subsidiary organizations 
of a similar kind in every city and important town. 

" These town and city organizations should report to the State 
organization, and the State organization should report to the 
Central. 

" The State or assistant treasurer should forward all moneys 
not appropriated in outfits for the emigrants from their individual 
States to the general treasury at Chicago, to be applied under the 
direction of the board, to assist emigrants in such ways as they 
may deem expedient. 

"The president of the Central Committee should be able to 
survey the whole field, and to perfect the organization of each 
State, Either he or some one man must have the general direc- 
tion in the movement, and be the controlling worker in giving it 
form and efficiency. 

" Pardon me for these suggestions, and accept my thanks for 
your faithful service in the cause of free Kansas. I feel a per- 
sonal gratitude to you for these labors. 

" Very truly yours, 

"Eli Thayer. 

"Wm. Barnes, Esq." 

The convention met at Cleveland on the 26th, 
but took no action whatever, except to adjourn to 
meet in Buffalo on the 9th of July. One or two 
speeches, however, were made. 

At Buffalo, on the 9th of July, there was a con- 
vention of delegates, representing Kansas leagues 
and committees in thirteen Northern States. The 



214 THE KANSAS CKUSADE. 

writer was made chairman of the committee to 
prepare the work of the convention. He reported 
just such a national Kansas committee as he had 
been describing in his letters, and located them, as 
he had before proposed, at Chicago. The conven- 
tion adopted the report unanimously. They also 
sent Dr. Howe, of Boston, and Thaddeus Hyatt, of 
New York City, to take charge of our emigrants, 
then in Iowa, and provide for their safe conduct 
into Kansas. To this work these gentlemen de- 
voted themselves. They found the emigrants in 
the greatest poverty and disorder, while J. H. Lane 
was assuming to direct their movements. They 
gave Lane very definite orders to go away and 
keep away. They put Col. S. ^Y. Eldridge in 
charge, and he brought all the colonies safely into 
the Territory. 

The further work of the Buffalo Convention is 
told in the Boston Daily Advertiser of July 17, 
1856, in the leading editorial, as follows : 

THE SYSTEMATIC BELIEF OF KANSAS. 

" The arrangements made last week at the National Convention 
at Buffalo, of the friends of Kansas, for giving s3'stem to the 
general desire of the Northern States to assist the free men of 
Kansas, are such as promise an immediate concentration of ac- 
tion and seem to us to evince great practical wisdom. 

* ' For this purpose the convention named the National Executive 
Committee, having a quorum of its members in the city of Chi- 
cago, to act as a disbursing committee of the funds collected in 
the different parts of the country for the benefit of Kansas settlers 

and emigrants. 

* -Sf- * * * * * 

"For the object, equally important, of securing a universal 
contribution to these funds, the convention adopted a measure 



BUFFALO CONVENTION. 215 

which also has our decided approval. On motion of Mr. Gerrit 
Smith, Mr. Eli Thayer, of this State, was appointed a committee 
of one to take charge of the systematic organization of all the 
States friendly to Kansas, for her relief. We believe the conven- 
tion was wise in making this committee consist of one person. 
We believe it particularly fortunate in appointing Mr. Thayer to 
a duty which he can discharge so eflSciently. The service which 
he has rendered to Kansas, first, by creating the Emigrant Aid 
Company, in the face of great depression, and next, by constant 
public and private appeals in behalf of Kansas, is well understood 
in New England and New York City. The work now intrusted 
to him is very clearly the work for one man and not for many. 

" We are glad to be able to announce this morning that Mr. 
Thayer has already entered upon his work, with the promptness 
which the occasion demands. 

" He has perfected a plan which may carry the cause of Kan- 
sas to every hearth-stone in the free States. 

" It proposes that there shall be formed two classes of Kansas 
committees ; a State Committee for every State, and a County 
Committee for every county. Some of these committees already 
exist. Each County Committee should then appoint a town 
agent for every town in the county, with authority to appoint a 
solicitor (male or female) for every school district in the town. 
These district solicitors apply to every man, woman, and child, if 
possible, in their respective districts ; and make returns of their 
collections, with a duplicate of the subscription books, to the 
town agent. By applying to this agent, any subscriber can 
ascertain whether his subscription has been duly forwarded. 
The town agents make returns to the treasurer of the County 
Committee, who makes regular returns to the treasurer of the 
State Committee, who in turn remits to the National Committee. 

' ' In this way every cent contributed can be traced from the 
hand of the donor to the treasury of the General Committee, 
without any charge or expenses. And by this plan the General 
Committee deals only with State Committees, these with County 
Committees, and these only with school districts, and they only 
with individuals. 

" If this plan were faithfully carried out, we should have three 
or four millions of subscribers as the result, with scarcely any 
expense for agencies. 



216 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

" We publish these details, in extenso, thus, in the hope that 
they may be at once copied through the country, and that the 
different arrangements may be put at once in motion. We hope 
to announce soon that a regular series of remittances to the Chi- 
cago National Committee has begun. 

" We observed in our report of the Buffalo Convention that a 
member of that convention expressed the feeling that Mr. Thay- 
er's connection with the Emigrant Aid Company would make his 
appointment unpopular with tlie country. We confess our sur- 
prise at this suggestion. We believe that the unanimous feeling 
of the free States of this Union towards that company, of which 
he is the founder, is one of profound gratitude for its efforts at a 
time when every one beside was in despair as to the fate of 
Kansas. 

"The convention at Buffalo would never have existed had 
not that company acted when it did. There would have been 
no free-State party in Kansas without it. There may be many 
men there from the free States who did not go under its auspices, 
but there are very few who did not go influenced by the assur- 
ance that the company gave, that Kansas should be free. 

" We can understand why President Pierce and Dr. Stringf el- 
low denounce it ; but we do not see why the unpopularity of its 
founder tcith them should act in the Buffalo Convention. 

"Mr. Thaj^er defended the company with spirit before the 
convention, and the convention showed no fear of its unpopular- 
ity. He referred to the enthusiastic praise it has received abroad 
and at home. Styled by the London Times 'The greatest 
American movement of this age,' it has been welcomed here by 
our ablest statesmen, scholars, and business men. 

"After his speech no sort of opposition was made to his ap- 
pointment ; and the convention commissioned him to the work 
we have described." 

The following are the names of the National 
Kansas Committee elected by the Buffalo Conven- 
tion : G. E. Eussell, Boston, Mass. ; "\Y. H. Kussell, 
Connecticirt ; Thaddeus Hyatt, E'ew York ; IST. B. 
Craig, Pennsylvania; John W. Wright, Indiana; 
Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln, 111. ; E. B. Ward, Mich- 



NATIONAL COMMITTEE. 217 

igcaii ; Hon. J. H. Tweedy, Wisconsin ; Gov. W. H. 
Hoppin, Ehocle Island ; ^Y. II. Stanley, Ohio ; F. A. 
Hunt, Missouri ; S. "W. Eldridge, Kansas Territory ; 
and G. W. Dole, J. D. Webster, H. B. Hurd, J. Y. 
Scammon, and J. N. Fernold of Chicago, 111. ; J. H. 
Reeder was subsequently added to the committee. 

The IN'ational Kansas Committee was organized 
without delay by the election of Thaddeus Hyatt 
of New York City as president. Mr. Hyatt de- 
voted himself to his work with great fidelity , cour- 
age, and persistency. He several times visited 
Kansas to learn the needs of the settlers, and su- 
pervised the disbursement of hundreds of thousands 
of dollars. 

In reply to my inquiries concerning his Kansas 
work, and its pecuniary cost to himself, I have just 
received a letter from which the following is an 
extract : 

" In one way and another, counting contingent losses, tbe cost 
to me of making Kansas a free State was one hundred thousand 
dollars. I travelled in behalf of her people a hundred thousand 
miles on the railways of the country at my own expense. This 
includes the famine time, and covers the period from 1855 to 

1861. 

"From the moment when the magnetism of your eloquence 
and logic drew from my finger a five hundred dollar ring for the 
Emigrant Aid Company, I was committed to the cause. If I 
obtatned prominence in the work it was not of my own seeking. 
I was shoved forward by events as one is moved onward in a 
crowd. I hope you will do full justice to my friends Samuel 
C. Pomeroy and W. F. M. Arny. . . . There were none more de- 
voted and none more true." 

Long after the freedom of Kansas had become 
secure^Mr. Hyatt and his friends Arny and Pome- 
10 



218 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

roy, together with the I^ational Kansas Committee, 
continued their work, furnishing such suppUes as 
the pioneers most needed. In the year of the fam- 
ine, with their facihties for reaching the Northern 
people, and with their disbursing agents in Kansas, 
their services were of the greatest importance. A 
full record of their work can be seen in the pubh- 
cations of the Kansas State Historical Society, To- 
peka, vols. i. and ii., 1875-1880. 

The plan for organizing the free States in sup- 
port of this committee was soon perfected and put 
into practice. Little subscription-books were pre- 
pared for school districts, and contributions of 
dimes or dollars were solicited, mainly by ladies. 
In Worcester County, Massachusetts, six hundred 
of these books v»^ere distributed — one for every 
school district. In the State, six thousand were in 
use. The funds, Avith duplicates of aU subscription- 
books, were sent to the town committee, who re- 
ported to the county committee, who reported to 
the State committee ; the latter making their re- 
turns to the National Kansas Committee at Chi- 
cago. There was no chance for the loss of even 
one penny. The Fremont clubs were also supplied 
with these little books, and by all these agencies 
almost every hearth-stone in the free States was 
reached. 

Now came on, in all its vehemence, the Presiden- 
tial campaign. Governor Geary was sent to Kan- 
sas. He told the Missourians that one more raid 
into Kansas would defeat Buchanan. The Mis- 
souri bond-holders and the St. Louis merchants re- 



GLEAMS OF LIGHT. 219 

inforced the arguments of Governor Geary. The 
border ruffians were "between the devil and the 
deep sea." They knew something at this time of 
the dismal straits of Foe's unfortunate, 

"Whom unmerciful disaster 
Followed fast and followed faster," 

The Missouri River was opened, and our emi- 
grants resumed the old and much more convenient 
route. The black and direful clouds which for 
three years had hung over the border of Kansas, 
charged with ruin and death, began to break, and 
to show fitful gleams of welcome light through 
their ragged openings. 

But everj^ where the campaign orators in favor 
of Fremont had one grand and comprehensive ar- 
gument. " Elect Fremont or lose Kansas and be 
forever slaves." 

I was nominated for Congress in the Worcester 
district and elected. Called before the nominating 
convention to make a speech, upon accepting the 
nomination, I frankly said that I should never as- 
sent to this nonsense everywhere promulgated by 
the Fremont orators; that his defeat would be 
chains and slavery for Kansas ; that this was the 
people's fight against slavery, and not the fight of 
the politicians, that nearly twice as many men 
were determined Kansas should be free as would 
cast their votes for Fremont ; that Kansas would 
be free whether Fremont, Buchanan, or the devil 
was President. 

Had Fremont been elected, the politicians would 



220 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

have claimed, to this day, that the salvation of 
Kansas was by that event secured. People gener- 
ally had been educated to hope for nothing on the 
slavery question that did not come to them through 
the wisdom of Congressional or Executive action. 
The ordinance of 1787, which was inoperative in 
practice, and null and void in law, has always been 
paraded by politicians as the great cause of free- 
dom in the five powerful States made from the 
north-west territory. It is natural for most men, 
especially for politicians, to magnify their office. 
The North-west was made free because her hardy 
pioneers desired her to be free. She would never 
have been any less free if the boasted ordinance of 
1787 had never been heard of. 

At that time there was no division of opinion 
upon the slavery question. North and South alike 
regarded the institution as a calamity and a curse. 
The leaders of Southern thought denounced it in 
more determined and vigorous language than was 
heard from the lips of Northern speakers, or read 
from the columns of Northern journals. All this 
harmony of feeling between the different sections 
rendered impossible any serious antagonism on this 
subject in the North-west. 

But when the Kansas struggle came, the old har- 
mony had entirely disappeared. While for thirty 
years after the ordinance of 1787 it had remained 
unchanged, it began to be disturbed by the admis« 
sion of Missouri as a slave State, and thirteen years 
later was utterly destroyed by the Southern policy 
of Calhoun. Having attempted in vain to com- 



CALHOUN'S WORK. 221 

bine the South against the tariff, he succeeded in 
securing a perfect union in favor of slavery. The 
same institution whose existence had so long been 
deplored by the South as a burden and a curse 
which all should labor to remove, began then to be 
applauded as ordained of God, sustained by the 
Bible, and well adapted to secure the highest de- 
velopment of botli the white and negro races. The 
slave-holders, who formerly were willing to reason 
upon methods for its extinction, had now become 
haughty, arrogant, and imperious. Nothing now 
was acceptable to them but the unrestricted exten- 
sion of their cherished institution. Any man who 
in the slightest degree opposed their views was 
denounced as an Abolitionist. Such was the tone 
and temper of the slave-holders when they de- 
manded and secured the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise. All talk, all reasoning, all entreaty, 
on the part of the North was treated with scorn 
and contempt. The time had therefore fully come 
to humble this insolent and usurping power. The 
Crusade of Freedom did this Avork and drove 
slavery through desperation to death. But this 
was a work in which, fortunately, politicians had 
no hand and exercised no power. The people 
made this fight for freedom and carried it through 
to triumphant success. 

In all my journeys I never met members of Con- 
gress, or any prominent politicians, who had made 
speeches to raise colonies for Kansas. Trusting 
only in the Congressional restriction of slavery, 
they doubtless believed, as they had often said, that 



222 THE KAXSAS CRUSADE. 

Kansas was lost. The strong arms of free labor 
rescued her and proved their po^yer to protect all 
the rights and interests of free men. The motto 
of Miles Standish was here Avell applied : " If you 
want a thing well done, do it yourself." The Kan- 
sas work was done by the people for themselves, 
and history will say that it was " well done." 

With the steadiness of a planet moving in its 
orbit, this great crusade advanced for three years 
constantly and persistently towards its final tri- 
umph. It united all the free States in a common 
purpose to destroy slavery. In its management 
there was no retreating, no hesitation, no uncer- 
tainty. Under the shield of the Constitution we 
pressed forward to certain victory. I have called 
this decisive movement '' a crusade." Very likely 
historians will call it " a campaign." But under 
whatever name, its majestic power, moral gran- 
deur, and far-reaching results have strongly mark- 
ed a new epoch in our history. 

At the end of 1856 I left the Kansas work and 
began the colonizing of Yirginia. We had tri- 
umphed in the great conflict with such exuberance 
of strength that we had in Kansas four free-State 
men to every one of our opponents; while our 
numbers were rapidly increasing, and theirs con- 
stantly diminishing. Buford and his Southern sol- 
diers had returned to Alabama. Other Southern 
battalions had retired to the sunny fields of their 
homes. Atchison and Stringfellow had given up 
the fight. It now remained for the free-State men 
of Kansas to restore order, and to build upon the 



EMINENT HELPERS. 223 

ruins of the past that unrivalled commonwealth 
whose proud history has made her the pivotal State 
of our destiny, as she is of our geography. One of 
my last speeches on Kansas w^as made in Cam- 
bridge, Mass., December IT, 1856. 

The following call, thought necessary because 
there was but two days' notice of the meeting, 
serves still further to show what kind of men sus- 
tained the Emigrant Aid Company : 

"HON. ELI THAYER, of Worcester, will address the ladies 
and gentlemen of Cambridge in Lyceum Hall, on MONDAY 
EVENING next, 17th inst., at 7 1-2 o'clock, on the question now 
at issue in Kansas, and will propose a method for its solution, to 
which he earnestly invites the attention and co-operation not 
only of the friends of Freedom and the Union, but of civilization 
and Christianity. 

" Jacob H. Bates, Wm. L. Whitney, 

S. T. Farwell, C. C. Felton, 

Joel Pareek, J. E. Worcester, 

H. W. Longfellow, Emory Washburn, 

Charles Beck, George Livermore, 

A. WiLLARD, A. H. Bamsay, 

Ephraim Buttrick, John G. Palfrey, 

F. L. Chapman, Wm. A. Saunders, 

Wm. T. Bichardson, J. A, Albro, 

C. Francis, Wm, Newell, 

John Pryor, F. D. Huntington, 

Jos. T. Buckingham, Charles R Metcalf, 

JOSIAH COOLIDGE." 

The following editorial is from the Canibridge 
Chronicle of December 22, 1856 : 

' ' After Professor Hedrick's remarks, it was a relief when the 
broad, calm brow of Mr. Thayer loomed up before us. We were 
requested not to report his speech, and shall therefore only speak 
of it in general terms. It was more even than we hoped for. 



224 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

and whether considered as a speech or as an argument, was a 
powerful effort. Such u deep penetration into and entire grasp 
of his subject, such aptness of expression, and illustration we 
seldom find. The views he took have not been presented by the 
press or public speakers — they are new to the people; but un- 
questionably sound, as they are hopeful to freedom; and as he 
presented them we cannot doubt that they were convincing to 
his audience. 

"For ourselves, we never had any sympathy with those who 
fear the dow^ufall of freedom. We have supposed that, as here- 
tofore, our liberties might yet * cost treasure and cost blood,' but 
we could not doubt the triumph of freedom over slavery, and of 
every right over every wrong. Mr. Thayer shows clearly enough 
that freedom will not only triumph, but that it will triumph with 
an insignificant cost of blood, and an actual augmentation of 
treasure. He proposes to make a profitable business of coloniz- 
ing Kansas; and indicates the way in which even the old slave- 
holding States may be also colonized by freedom; and slavery — 
that unsubstantial thing, which we have always tried to keep at 
a distance from us, and shrunk from as from a monster with 
demon teeth and claws— retire and vanish before it as mists of 
night before the morning sun. 

"It might be supposed, he observed in commencing, that the 
Presidential election had decided the question of the freedom of 
Kansas. No more, said he, than the last eclipse of the moon 
decided it. The freedom of the country was involved in the 
freedom of Kansas. Would freedom, which is a true thing, fail, 
and slavery, which is a false thing, succeed? Never. Slavery 
was inherently weak; it could not compete with freedom. It 
was on this idea that the New England Emigrant Aid Society 
was formed and chartered. Their policy was to set freedom to 
compete with slavery, by controlling the tide of emigration ever 
setting Westward, and organizing its force in Kansas. Formerly 
freedom went into new Territories as an infant — its forces feeble, 
few, and scattered. A settler went here and another there, plant- 
ed themselves in the wilderness, and waited eight, ten, or twenty 
years for civilization to come up to them. But into the Terri- 
tory of Kansas freedom was to be sent a full-grown man — its 
forces organized and concentrated, and its institutions in all the 
perfection they have attained here. Every colony planted by 



J. M. S. WILLIAMS. 225 

the society was provided with a church, a school, and a steam- 
engine. Slavery could not stand before these things. Wher- 
ever the steam-engine went, liberty would prevail. An ordinary, 
dull man seeing one of those pioneers of freedom going up the 
Missouri would say, 'There goes a steam-engine, probably so 
many horse-power, weighs so many tons.' David R. Atchison 

seeing it, says, ' There goes another d d Abolition city into 

Kansas!' 

"Why, the steam-engine was a singer and would sing of noth- 
ing but freedom. Set it to sawing pine logs into boards, and it 
would sing at its work day and night, * Home for the free '.—home 
for the free !' Set it to sawing tough, gnarled oak, and its song 
would be, ' Never a slave State! — never a slave State!' 

"The applause of the audience testified that there was both 
truth and poetry in the figure. 

"Mr. Thayer paid a deserved compliment to our fellow-citizen, 
J. M. S. Williams, Esq. He was the first man, he said, who gave 
him any encouragement in Boston. When he was laboring to 
present his views to the people of that city, and had labored 
long, seemingly in vain, Mr. Williams came forward and offered 
$10,000 in aid of the enterprise; and it was through his influence 
with the business men of Boston that the plan of the Emigrant 
Aid Society at last got a hearing and met with success." 
10* 



CHAPTER XIII. 

WHAT SAVED KANSAS. 

It is the purpose of this chapter to present a 
summary of the evidence, both of friends and foes, 
that the Plan of Freedom saved Kansas and over- 
threw slavery. 

Some of the following evidence is recent, and 
some contemporaneous with the great contest on 
the prairies ; some of it is from hostile, and some 
from friendly sources. The reader will observe, 
however, that all agree upon one point — that there 
was only one obstruction in the way of slavery in 
Kansas, and that was " the new science of emigra- 
tion," together with the skill and energy with 
which this new force was directed and utilized. 

Some of these articles are in reply to remarks in 
the Century Magazine by Nicolay and Hay in their 
Life of Lincoln, in which they disparage the work 
of the Emigrant Aid Company. 

The complete refutation of their views can be 
found in the recent editorials now quoted, but espe- 
cially in that of Horace Greeley, written early in 
the Kansas conflict, and recorded in the New York 
IriJjune of September 6, ISott, as follows : 

"The Douglas Bill had hardly passed before a crowd of Mis- 
souri slave-holders rushed over into Kansas, began staking out 



TRIBUNE.— WORCESTER SPY. 227 

and claiming all the best lands, and held meetings to denounce 
and threaten all 'Northern Abolitionists' who should venture 
into that region. There have been several such meetings held 
in Kansas or in the Missouri villages along her frontier. In 
every one, the resolves of the slave-holders are enforced by a 
meaning reference to the bowie-knife and rifle, as the favorite 
arguments of their caste. Individual settlers from the free 
States would have been deterred, or intimidated into acquies- 
cence by these demonstrations. It is only by organization and 
concert that the North has been able to defy them. If Kansas 
is saved to freedom (as we trust it will be), she will owe her es- 
cape to agitation, activity, resolute effort — in short, to those very 
measures which the Richmond Whig condemms and would have 
us desist from. In fact, for the last half-century we have lost 
Louisiana, Florida, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas by Peace, and 
saved all we have saved by effort, resistance, and agitation. And 
now that Cuba, Hayti, Mexico, Dominica, Central America, and 
the Sandwich Islands are all within the contemplation of the 
slave power, as subjects of more or less immediate annexation, 
it behooves us to stand to our arms and let our resolution be dis- 
tinctly understood. We shall never more have lasting peace 
until it is settled that no more slave States are to be added to our 
Union. With that point settled, we shall have peace with our 
neighbors and peace among ourselves. We shall buy or steal no 
more territory from the moment it is fixed that all States hence- 
forth added to the Union must come in as free States, We en- 
treat the Whig, therefore, to rest assured that we not only love 
peace as well as the South can, but that we are taking the only 
way to secure it." 

Editorial of the Worcester Sjvj of May 4, 1887, 
in answer to Nicolay and Hay : 

"To those who remember the struggle between the forces of 
slavery and freedom, the North and the South, for the possession 
of Kansas, it seems almost superfluous for Mr, Eli Thayer to con- 
tradict the assertions of Messrs, Nicolay and Hay, the biographers 
of Lincoln in the Century Magazine, that the Massachusetts Emi- 
grant Aid Society had but small influence upon the result of that 
contest, and that ' the North in general trusted to the ordinary 



228 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

and natural movement of emigration.' Mr. Tliaycr has shown 
conclusively that this is a grave error, pardonable, perhaps, in a 
writer who should refer to the subject incidentally, but inexcus- 
able in one who professes to write authentic history. Mr. Thayer 
proves, by unimpeachable evidence, that the pro-slavery people, 
from JNIissouri, chiefly, were first in possession ; that they con- 
trolled all the avenues of approach ; that they were fully aware 
of the importance of excluding free-State men and perfectly un- 
scrupulous as to the means of doing it; that immigrants from the 
free States encountered not only the hardships and privations 
incidental to settlement in a new country, but also dangers to 
property and life from the persecutions of hostile neighbors, 
whose prejudices and passions were inflamed by the press and 
the influential politicians of the South; that their only protec- 
tion against these dangei-s was the support of their neighbors, and 
therefore organized immigration in colonies was a necessity ; 
that, in fact, the Emigrant Aid Society and its auxiliaries in all 
the Northern States did aid and direct in the migration of thou- 
sands of colonists, and that the organs of Southern and pro- 
slavery opinion in the press and in Congress, knowing all the 
facts, and profoundly interested in the issue, attributed the peo- 
pling of Kansas by free-State men to the activity — unlawful and 
pernicious activity they declared it — of the Emigrant Aid Society 
All this was universally known, and no one thought of disputing 
it at the time. What put it into the heads of Lincoln's biogra- 
phers to pervert history as they have done, it is hard to conject- 
ure. Mr. Thayer's suggestion that one of the important qualifi- 
cations of a historian is some knowledge of history is severe in 
its implication of the deficiencies of these historians, but is not 
undeserved." 

Gen. Charles Devens, in his address before the 
Bunker Hill Monument Association, on the ITth of 
June, 1887, ably sustains the Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany as follows : 

"If left to the laws of ordinary emigration, the immediate 
presence on the border of Kansas of a prosperous and powerful 
slave State like Missouri would have rendered it certain that she 
would follow the example of her neighbor. With different de- 



GEN. CHARLES DEVENS. 229 

grees of feeling, yet with substantial unanimit}^ the North was 
utterly opposed to the extension of slavery. The passage of such 
a bill was like throwing down a gauntlet into the arena of civil 
controversy, which must be lifted or the cause abandoned. 

" The most powerful individual agency in meeting the issue 
thus forced, and in placing Kansas in the column of free States, 
was the Emigrant Aid Company, formed in Massachussetts, of 
which Mr. Eli Thayer was the president and originator, and Mr. 
Lawrence the treasurer. 

"Its plan was of a peaceful organized emigration, which 
should, by the force of the feeling and influence which would 
accompany it, render it impossible that slavery should enter, or 
if it entered should ever maintain itself there. It is not only in 
what this society did, but in what it induced others to do, that 
the value of its work consisted. 

"Mr. Lawrence was b}'' nature, as well as by pohtical educa- 
tion, decidedly conservative in bis constitutional views, but he 
had always ardently opposed the system of slavery. He had felt 
what at that time weighed much on the minds of many just men 
in both the great national parties — the difliculty of reconciling 
his obligations under the Constitution with this opposition. It 
was because the methods to be employed by the Emigrant Aid 
Company were strictly constitutional that they commended them- 
selves alike to his judgment and his feeling. It is not my inten- 
tion to recall the scenes — terrible and bloody, many of them — of 
that controversy which made of the struggle for Kansas a prel- 
ude to the War for the Union. Had that never occurred, it is 
by no means impossible that by confining slavery within fixed 
bounds, which would have been ever narrowing, the success in 
Kansas might have brought about the gradual extinction of 
slavery." 

The following is an extract from a recent letter 
of Hon. Francis E. Spinner, upon the same subject 
as the above : 

"You, in your fight for the vindication of the truth of history, 
hold the vantage-ground, for the facts are all on your side. Those 
who were men in 1854, and who kept the run of the politics of 
the country for the next seven years, know that j^our Emigrant 



330 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Aid Society did more to save Kansas and Nebraska to freedom 
than all other lielp and appliances combined. But to those who 
came after, and to our posterity, it is well that the truth should 
be restated. The claim that the Garrison Abolitionists abolished 
slavery is about on a par with that of the ignorant of the Irish, 
that St. Patrick invented the potato." 

The following is an editorial in the Sun, May 27, 
1887: 

THE DISUNIONISTS OF THE NORTH. 

"We referred a short time ago to a pamphlet in which Mr. 
Eli Thayer, of Worcester, Massachusetts, described the part played 
by organized immigration in the making of Kansas a free State. 
But it seems that certain of the old Abolitionists, and more par- 
ticularly Mr. Oliver Johnson, are offended because he has as- 
sumed to take any of the credit for that result. They say that 
it was the Garrison host who did the work, by calling tlie people 
to a ' moral fight ' against slavery. 

"Mr. Thayer thereupon proceeds to give the Abolitionists such 
a dressing down as they have not received since the days of their 
prominence. He declares that although ' egotism never yet 
equalled or approached their own,' they were only marplots in 
the struggle against slavery; that their real purpose was not the 
overthrow of slavery, but the destruction of the Union. ' They 
knew,' says Mr. Thayer, 'if Kansas became a slave State, there 
would be quite an accession to the disunion element of the 
North,' and therefore 'their fraternity of mountebanks or mon- 
omaniacs ' derided the practical efforts of the Emigration Soci- 
ety to direct to Kansas settlers who were on the side of freedom; 
'for, as T. W. Higginson said, it would only be another Massa- 
chusetts. The original Massachusetts had been tried and found 
w^anting.' ' Really,' continues Mr. Thayer, ' these men had noth- 
ing more to do in accomplishing the overthrow of slavery in this 
country than had the King of the Cannibal Islands.' 

"What the Abolitionists were after was the overthrow of the 
Union because it involved the toleration and protection of sla- 
very ; and whatever made slavery more hateful to the people of 
the North was received by them with rejoicing, for it aggravated 
the ground of offence against the South and the feeling of dis- 



CHARLES A. DANA. 231 

satisfaction with tlie Union. Tiie further the slave power pro- 
ceeded in its aggressions the better were they pleased, for the 
North became the more, earnest in its resentment, and the hopes 
of disunion— of the breaking up of the ' compact with hell and 
league with death,' as they called the Union— grew stronger in 
their breasts. 

"Mr. Thayer, be it remembered, w^as alwaj^s a bitter opponent 
of slavery, and at great personal and pecuniary sacrifice organ- 
ized and carried forward the movement for the practical redemp- 
tion of Kansas from the power of the slave-holders. He lived, 
too, in Worcester, the great seat of Abolitionism, and was inti- 
mately acquainted with the Garrison party and their purposes. 
For twenty-five years before he started his Emigration Society, 
when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise became a foregone 
conclusion, they had been carrying on what Mr. Oliver Johnson 
calls their ' moral fight ' against slavery ' with but a remarkably 
feeble response from the people, while slavery went on from tri- 
umph to triumph, so that it had become stronger in 1854 than it 
had ever been since the foundation of the Government.' 
******* 

"The Garrison Abolitionists were therefore as uncompromis- 
ing in their disunionism as the bitterest fire-eaters of the South; 
and, as Mr. Thayer says, if they had succeeded in their purposes, 
the result would have been ' the destruction of the Union and 
the erection of a great slave power.' " 

The following is an editorial in the New Eng- 
land Home Journal of May 21, 188Y : 

'BLEEDING KANSAS' DAYS. 

" Just now when the story of the battle-fields is being told and 
retold in literature, not with a view to engender heat, or continue 
animosity, but to secure accuracy in permanent history, the thor- 
ough revival of the days of the early Kansas struggle shares im- 
portance w4th few other features of the time. We have already 
expressed our satisfaction at the value of the discussion started 
by Hon. Eli Thayer's reminiscences of his New England Emi- 
grant Aid Society, originally given and recently published in the 
transactions of the Worcester Society of Antiquity. Entirely of 
separate origin, but in the same line, comes a little later the reply 



232 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

of Mr. Thayer to some strictures on his pristine organization 
which appears in the Hay-Nicolay ' Life of Abraham Lincoln,' 
in a recent number of the Century. The two authors in question 
probably intended no deliberate unfairness, their reference being 
both slight and slighting, but it has given Mr. Thaj^er opportu- 
nity for a very full and pungent review of his Emigrant Aid So- 
ciety of 1856, which first of all appeals stirred the North to a 
new realization of the encroachments of the slave power, and 
was the first suggestion of methods in that conflict looking to the 
resort to arms. It is certain that the Kansas collision in arms, 
slight as it was in actual result, prepared the minds of that whole 
generation of men for the event which came later, but following 
direct sequences, in President Lincoln's call for 75,000 men to 
subdue the rebellion. This call came to a people whose eyes had 
already been opened to the possibilities of the struggle, by the 
declared mission of Sharp's rifles on Kansas soil. If any have 
doubted that this was the full meaning and lesson of the early 
Kansas days, recent light cast on the question has been of value." 

There is one very important suggestion in the 
above ; that the Kansas contest not only combined 
the N'orth as a unit against slavery, but gave her 
that special training which enabled her to subdue 
secession. 

Editorial in the New York Emning Post, April 
27, 1887 : 

" Mr. Eli Thayer, the founder of the New England Emigrant 
Company that played so large a part in the struggle for ' Free 
Kansas ' thirty years ago, writes for the Boston Herald a slashing 
criticism of the last instalment of Nicolay and Hay's biography 
of Abraham Lincoln in the April Century. The authors of the 
biography are accused of * an effort to disparage the work of the 
Emigrant Aid Company,' by showing that there vTas no need of 
any such organization, and that it was of little, if any, use in 
securing the freedom of Kansas. Mr. Thayer shows that this is 
a totally erroneous conception, and scarcely excusable in a work 
which assumes to take a place among sober works of history. 
The Emigrant Aid Company was not only systematic and eSi- 



iV. Y. EVENING POST. 233 

cient in its own field of operations, but it formed the indispen- 
sable rallying-point of all other efforts for making Kansas a free 
State. To suppose that Kansas could have been rescued from 
the pro-slavery conspiracy by the ordinary course of free immi- 
gration, is to ignore all the facts of contemporary history, geog- 
raphy, and social science. The truth was stated with great 
frankness and exactness by Senator Green of Missouri, in 1861, 
when he said: ' But for the hot-bed plants that have been planted 
in Kansas by the iustrumentalit}' of the Emigrant Aid Society, 
Kansas would have been with Missouri this day.' Yet it is not 
to be supposed that the biographers of Abraham Lincoln have 
made any ' effort ' to disparage the w^ork of the Emigrant Aid 
Company. They could have had no motive to do so. They 
have not made sufficient preliminary study for this part of their 
work; and the same remark applies to their sketch of the war 
•with Mexico." 

Editorial in the Boston Herald, April 25, 1887 : 

ELI THAYER'S TESTLMONY. 

" Hon. Eli Thayer exposes in the Sunday Herald of yesterday 
some very bad mistakes wiiich the authors of the new Life of 
Lincoln, publishing in the Century Magazine, have made in their 
narration of the settlement of Kansas. This is in the line of what 
we stated at the time the instalment criticised appeared. These 
biographers are excellently fitted to write of Mr. Lincoln himself, 
especially as they saw him in personal intercourse. They will 
make a most interesting, as well as valuable, book, if they con- 
fine themselves to this point. Beyond it they have shown them- 
selves not to be reliable historians. We alluded to some instances 
in point. Mr. Thayer's exposure is signal and conclusive. It is 
all the more pity that they should have sw^elled their book by the 
narration of this Kansas settlement, as it had nothing whatever 
to do with the life of Mr. Lincoln." 

And again, May 3, 1887: 

THE KANSAS CONFLICT. 

" The exposure of the bad mistake made by the authors of the 
' Life of Lincoln,' in the Century, with regard to the early history 



234 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

of Kansas, Las at last fully found its way into tlie press, and is 
generally commented upon. It was originally exposed in the 
Herald more than a week ago. This patronizing conception of 
the Emigrant Aid Society of the North as an organization of good 
intentions, but of no important achievement, was almost gro- 
tesque in its error, had not its injustice overshadowed its absurd 
feature." 

The following testimony, proving the efficiency 
and controlling power of the Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany in the decisive contest between freedom and 
slavery in Kansas, is mainly from the pro-slavery 
side. 

In his evidence before the Howard Congressional 
Committee,^ John H. Stringfellow, having been 
duly sworn, said : 

"At the time of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and 
prior to that time, I never heard any man, in my section of Mis- 
souri, express a doubt about the character of the institutions 
which would be established here, provided the Missouri restric- 
tion was removed ; and I heard of no combination of persons, 
either in public or private, prior to the time of the organization 
of the Emigrant Aid Society, and indeed for months afterwards, 
for the purpose of making united action to frustrate the designs 
of that society in abolitionizing, or making a free State of Kan- 
sas. The conviction was general that it would be a slave State. 
The settlers who came over from Missouri after the passage of 
the bill, so far as I know, generally believed that Kansas would 
be a slave State. Free-State men who came into the Territory 
after the passage of the bill were regarded with jealousy by the 
people of w^estern Missouri, for the reason that a society had 
been formed for the avowed purpose of shaping the institutions 
of Kansas Territory, so as to make it a free State in opposition 
to the interests of the people of Missouri. If no emigrant aid 
societies had been formed in the Northern States, the emigration 
of people from there, known to be in favor of making Kansas a 

* House Documents Thirty-fourth Congress, No. 200. 



STRIXGFELLO^Y.— EDWARDS. 235 

free State, would have stimulated the emigration from Missouri. 
Had it not been for the emigrant aid societies, the majority in 
favor of slave institutions would, by the natural course of emi- 
gration, have been so great as to have fixed the institutions of the 
Territory without any exciting contest, as it was in the Settle- 
ment of the Platte Purchase. This was the way we regarded the 
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and this was the reason why 
we supported it." 

Isaac M. Edwards (sworn) : 

"It is my opinion that all the difficulties and troubles have 
been produced by the operations of the Emigrant Aid Society. 
I am satisfied that if the Emigrant Aid Society had not sent men 
out to the Territory of Kansas for the purpose of making it a free 
State, there would be no trouble or difficulties in the Territory." 

Scores of other witnesses before the Howard 
Commission testified in nearly the same words that 
there would have been no contest iDhatever in Kan- 
sas had it not been caused by the efforts of the 
Emigrant Aid Company to make Kansas a free 
State, by sending thither organized colonies of free- 
State men. 

This was not the testimony of Missourians alone, 
nor of pro-slavery settlers in Kansas. You will 
find it in all the pro-slavery papers of the time, and 
in nearly all the antislavery journals. 

Throughout the South the Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany ,-often under the name of " Eli Thayer & Co.," 
was charged with the enormous crime of making 
Kansas a free State. In Missouri various sums, in 
several localities, were publicly offered for the head 
of the founder of that company. 

Even in the halls of Congress pro-slavery sena- 
tors and representatives denounced this company 



236 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

as the power which had robbed the slave-State 
party of Kansas, and had put in peril the very ex- 
istence of slavery. 

In 1861, thono^h the battle had been fouo-ht in 
Kansas, and the victory won by the free-State men 
years before, Senator Green, of Missouri, said in the 
Senate : " But for the hot-bed plants that have been 
planted in Kansas through the instrumentality of 
the Emigrant Aid Society, Kansas would have been 
with Missouri this day." 

Stephen A. Douglas, in his report to the United 
States Senate in 1856, said : " Popular sovereignty 
was struck down by unhol}^ combinations in Xew 
England," 

Senator J. A. Bayard, of Delaware, said : " What- 
ever evil or loss or suffering or injury may result 
to Kansas, or to the United States at large, is at- 
tributable, as a primary cause, to the Emigrant Aid 
Society of Massachusetts." 

Senator Douglas, in his report to the Senate 
March 12, 1856, while vigorously denouncing the 
Emigrant Aid Company, excuses the acts of the 
border ruffians as follows : 

" When the emigrants sent out by the Massachusetts Emigrant 
Aid Company and their affiliated societies passed through the 
State of Missouri in large numbers on their way to Kansas, the 
violence of their language and the unmistakable indications of 
their determined hostility to the domestic institutions of that 
State created apprehensions that the object of the company was 
to abolitionize Kansas as a means of prosecuting a relentless war- 
fare upon the institutions of slavery within the limits of Missouri. 
These apprehensions increased and spread with the progress of 
events, until they became the settled convictions of the people 
of that portion of the State most exposed to the danger by their 



STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 237 

proximity to the Kansas border. The natural consequence was 
that immediate steps were taken by the people of the western 
counties of Missouri to stimulate, organize, and carry into effect 
a system of emigration similar to that of the Massachusetts Emi- 
grant Aid Compauj^ for tlie avowed purpose of counteracting 
the effects, and protecting themselves and their domestic insti- 
tutions from the consequences of that company's operations." 

The following article is from the Cliarleston 
(S. C.) Mercury of July, 1856 : 

"Now upon the proposition that the safety of the institution 
of slavery in South Carolina is dependent upon its establishment 
in Kansas, there can be no rational doubt. He, therefore, who 
does not contribute largely in money now, proves himself crim- 
inally indifferent, if not hostile, to the institution upon which the 
prosperity of the South and of this State depends. Let the 
names, therefore, be published daily, that we may see who are 
lukewarm in this vital issue — then we may see who are the peo- 
ple in this community lolio require to he watched. . . . 

"We suggest that the Kansas Association appoint a large 
vigilance committee, whose consultations shall be secret, and 
who shall take in charge the conduct of delinquents, and adopt 
such secret measures in reference to them as the interests of the 
community demand. In this way the contributions will doubt- 
less be adequate, and the cause of Kansas will prosper." 

The following is an extract from a long address 
issued by Atchison, Stringfellow, Buford, and oth- 
ers, on the 21st of June, 1856 : 

" Kansas they [the Abolitionists] justly regard as the mere out- 
post of the war now being waged between the antagonistic civil- 
izations of the North and South, and, winning this great outpost 
and stand-point, they rightly think their march will be open to an 
easy conquest of the whole field. Hence the extraordinary 
means the Abolition party has adopted to flood Kansas with the 
most fanatical and lawless portion of Northern society, and 
hence the large sums of money . . . expended ... to surround 

On the 



238 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

other band, the pro-slavery element of the law and order party 
in Kansas, looking to the Bible, finds slavery ordained of God. 
. . . Slavery is the negro's normal and proper state. We believe 
it a trust and guardianship, given as of God for the good of both 
races. . . . This is ... a great social and political question of 
races, ... a question whether we shall sink to the level of the 
freed African, and take him to the embrace of social and political 
equality and fraternity; for such is the natural end of Abolition 
progress. . . . That man or State is deceived that fondly trusts 
these fanatics may stop at Kansas. . . . The most convincing 
proof of this was recently given before the Congressional inves- 
tigating committee. Judge Matthew Walker . . . testified . . . 
that before the Abolitionists selected Lawrence as their centre of 
operations, their leader, Governor Robinson, attempted to get a 
foothold for them in the Wyandotte Reserve. . . . Robinson, find- 
ing it necessar}'^ to communicate their plans and objects, divulged- 
to Walker (whom he then supposed to be a S3'mpathizer) that 
the Abolitionists were determined on winning Kansas at any 
cost; that then, having Missouri surrounded on three sides, 
they would begin their assaults on her, and as fast as one 
State gave way attack another, until the whole South was abo- 
litionized. . , . We are confident that . . . the Abolition party was 
truly represented by Robinson, who has always been their chief 
man and acknowledged leader in Kansas. ... It was proved be- 
fore the investigating committee that the Abolition party had 
travelling agents in the Territory, whose duty it was to gather up, 
exaggerate, and report for publication rumors to the prejudice 
of the law and order party. ... In the present imperilled state of 
your civilization, if we do not maintain this outpost we cannot 
long maintain the citadel. Then rally to the rescue." 

De Bow's Review for August, 1856, published an 
appeal to the South in favor of establishing slavery 
in Kansas. Here are several extracts : 

"Slaves will now yield a greater profit in Kansas, either to 
hire out or to cultivate the soil, than any other place. . . . Those 
who have brought their slaves here are reaping a rich reward . . . 
and feel as secure in their property here as in Kentucky and 
[Missouri. . . . Why it is that more of our friends have not brought 



DE BOW'S REVIEW. 239 

their slaves with thera.we are at a loss to divine, unless the false- 
hoods and threats of the Abolitionists have frightened them. . . . 
Should Kansas be made a slave State? We say that location, 
climate, soil, productions, value of slave labor, the good of the mas- 
ter and slave— all conspire and cry aloud that it should be. . . . 
The squatters, too, have said three successive times, at the polls, 
that Kansas should be a slave State. But if all this is not enough, 
then we say, without fear of successful contradiction, that Kan- 
sas must be a slave State or the Union will be dissolved. ... If 
Kansas is not made a slave State, it requires no sage to foretell 
that there will never be another slave State. . . .Can Kansas be 
made a slave State? Thus far the pro-slavery party has tri- 
umphed in Kansas in spite of the Abolitionists and their Emi- 
grant Aid Societies." 

The prophetic threat of secession in the above — 
" Kansas must be a slave State or the Union will 
be dissolved" — is repeated in several quotations 
that follow. During the great conflict in Kansas 
this threat was made thousands of times in South- 
ern journals. They all asserted constantly, and 
with the best of reasons, that should Kansas be a 
free State there could never be another slave State 
admitted into the Union. Here, then, was the ar- 
gument and the prelude of the attempted secession. 
The Civil War followed, and the slaves were eman- 
cipated " as a military necessity." These were the 
logical sequences of the grand crusade and conflict. 

Kalph Waldo Emerson said of the Emancipation 
Proclamation, in his " Miscellanies," page 24:8 : 

" Whilst we have pointed out the opportuneness of the Proc- 
lamation, it remains to be said that the President had no choice. 
He might look wistfully for what variety of courses lay open to 
him; every line but one was closed up with fire. This one, too, 
bristled with danger, but through it was the sole safety. The 
measure he has adopted was imperative. . . . 



240 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

"We think we cannot overstate the wisdom and benefit of this 
act of the Government. The mahgnant cry of the secession 
press witliin the free States, and the recent action of the Con- 
federate Congress, are decisive as to its efficiency and correctness 
of aim." 

The following, of like imjDort with De Bow's Ee- 
view, is from the Mobile Register^ January, 1858 : 

" We sincerely trust there will be no flinching or hesitation 
on the part of our Southern representatives in Congress in the 
emergency before us. We hope they will meet the issue with 
an unbroken front, and let it be distinctly understood that the 
admission of Kansas, with her present Constitution and upon 
her present application, is the sine qua noii of the continuance of 
the Southern States in the confederacy." 

From the Charleston Mercury^ January, 1858 : 

"Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama stand pledged to secede 
from the Union should Kansas, applying to Congress for admis- 
sion as a slave State, be refused admission." 

From the J^ew York Herald^ January, 1858 : 

"With the capitulation of the South upon Kansas, all the 
measures, principles, abstractions, and protestations of the South- 
ern politicians, statesmen. States, and conventions of the last 
fifty years will be reduced to rubbish, and the chivalry, the pres- 
tige, the unity and self-sustaining spirit of the South will have 
departed forever. The question is one of life or death to the 
South, upon the simple alternative of the admission or rejection 
of Kansas with her slave-State Constitution." 

From the Itichmond South, November 21:, 1857 : 

"We declare at once that the Democracy of the South will 
never suffer Kansas to be kept out of the Union simply because 
its Constitution has never been submitted to the vote of the 
people." 

The following extract from a speech made by 
Hon. George S. Boutwell in Tremont Temple, Bos- 



GEORGE S. BOUTWELL. 241 

ton, December 16, 1861, contains several very im- 
portant facts, which I intend to examine and ac- 
count for: 

"These people have gone out of the Union because they see 
they cannot extend slavery in the Union. It was not because a 
few Abolitionists in the North hated slavery; it was not because 
some of us went to Chicago in 1860 and nominated Abraham 
Lincoln for President, and then elected him ; but it was because 
men of all parties and all persuasions and all ideas in the North 
had come to the conclusion that slavery should not be extended. 
It was the doctrine of churches, the doctrine of homes and 
hearth-stones, that slavery should not be extended." 

1. " These people have gone out of the Union 
because they could not extend slavery in the 
Union." 

The reader will observe in the preceding quota- 
tions that " these people " had been saying, during 
the entire Kansas struggle, that should they lose 
Kansas they could never form another slave State 
in the Union, and should therefore go out of the 
Union. ISTow, why did they lose Kansas? Abun- 
dant authority has already been presented in these 
pages to prove that they lost Kansas through the 
plan of organized emigration employed by the Emi- 
grant Aid Company and by hundreds of Kansas 
leagues in thirteen Northern States. All these or- 
ganizations had a common origin, and acted upon 
the same principles. Without them there would 
have been no contest Avhatever in that Territory. 
So what Mr. Boutwell says is true; and this com- 
mentary, which he withholds, is no less true. 

2. " It was not because a few Abolitionists in the 
North hated slavery." 

11 



242 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Evidently not. For twenty-five years slavery 
had prospered to such an extent in defiance of that 
hatred, that she had, in 1854, obtained absolute 
control of every department of the Government. 
The Abolitionists to Avhom Mr. Boutwell refers — 
the Garrison disunionists — had accomplished noth- 
ing, as has been amply shown by the highest au- 
thorities in our history. Had the South secured 
Kansas for slavery, she might have continued to 
laugh to scorn the impotence, as well as the impu- 
dence, of these fanatics. 

3. " It was not because some of us went to Chi- 
cago and nominated Lincoln for President, and then 
elected him." 

Here Mr. Boutwell Avisely corrects a popular 
error, that the South attempted to secede from the 
Union because Mr. Lincoln was elected President. 
Had the South made Kansas a slave State it would 
not have been in the power of Lincoln or of any 
other President, however hostile to slavery he 
might have been, to do anything whatever to im- 
pair the strength or to hinder the progress of that 
institution. In a few years the South Avould have 
had in the Senate a large majority of members 
from the slave States. Hence there could have 
been no legislation detrimental to their cherished 
institution. It is, therefore, supreme folly to attrib- 
ute secession to the election of Mr. Lincoln. Had 
the South won Kansas she would never have at- 
tempted secession. 

4. " But it was because men of all parties and all 
persuasions and all ideas in the North had come to 



WHAT DID IT. 243 

the conclusion that slavery should not be extended. 
It was the doctrine of churches, the doctrine of 
homes and hearth-stones, tliat slavery should not be 
extended." 

Yery Avell. But what agency had accomplished 
this unification of the North upon this question? 
In the spring of 1S54, Avhen the entire Xorth was 
engaged in protesting against the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise, and trembling at the pros- 
pect of more slave States and the perpetual domi- 
nation of slavery — when Charles Sumner spoke 
against the repeal in the United States Senate, 
'' standing,'' as he said, " by the very grave of free- 
dom in Kansas and Nebraska" — when Senator Sew- 
ard conceded these Territories to slavery, saying, 
" None of us here can have anything to do in pre- 
venting or removing the curse ; it may be done by 
future generations" — then, in the spring of the 
pivotal year 1854, these same "men of all parties 
and all persuasions and all ideas" had not the 
slightest hope of making Kansas free, or of arrest- 
ing the continued and triumphant tyranny of the 
" Black Power " in this country. But just here came 
the revelation of a plan to save Kansas. At first 
nobody believed in it; but before the end of 1854 
" the men of all parties and all persuasions and all 
ideas" beo^an to be combined in this o;reat work. 
Before the end of 1856 the North was a unit against 
the extension of slavery. In fact, any such exten- 
sion had been made forever impossible by the tri- 
umph of the free-State cause in Kansas. That was 
the beginning of the end of slaver}^ To be sure. 



244 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas debated the question 
of slavery extension in 1858, but they were discuss- 
ing an issue absolutely dead and of no importance 
whatever to anybody except to the debaters them- 
selves. 

We had already secured the freedom of Kansas, 
while the slave-holders had every possible advan- 
tage in the contest. They had the full control of 
every department of the Government, and were in 
force upon the very border of the Territory, while 
our emigrants had to make a journey of many hun- 
dred miles, and much of that through the slave 
State of Missouri. But by the Plan of Freedom 
adopted by the Emigrant Aid Company, Kansas 
was made free — very decidedly free — so that when 
admitted into the Union there was no slave State 
party within her borders. What, then, would have 
been the result had the attempt been made to cre- 
ate a slave State either south or west of Kansas, 
while we had her as our base of supplies for men 
and arms? It really seems jocose to discuss such 
a matter. Messrs. Lincoln and Douglas might as 
well have debated whether or not it was desirable 
to prevent the recurrence of the Glacial Period. 
In proof of the position that there could be no 
more slave States, I trust I shall be pardoned for 
introducing here an extract from my speech in the 
House of Representatives on the Sith of February, 
1859, made soon after the Douglas-Lincoln debate, 
as follows : 

"I can refer you to the history of Kansas. Kansas, ^\'itliout 
any protection for freedom, has become a free State, or at least 



NO MORE SLAVE STATES. 245 

she is this day prepared to be a free State, and will never be any- 
thing less. In defiance of numerous obstacles in the way of ob- 
taining her freedom, she has bravely secured it. In the immedi- 
ate vicinity of the Platte Purchase, the most intensely pro-slavery 
portion of Missouri, there, almost in the bosom of slave States, 
there, far removed from the States of the North, which furnish 
emigrants to the West, and with all the force of the General Gov- 
ernment against freedom, and for slavery in the Territory, the 
free-State heroes have triumphed; and not only that, but they 
have put forth many times the powder which was requisite to ac- 
complish the grand result. If it had not been for Executive in- 
tervention, and for the cowardly predictions of faint-hearted anti- 
slavery men in the North that Kansas would be lost, I think, 
sir, that the contest might have been ended before the year 1856. 

"But as it was, notwithstanding all the obstacles in her way, 
the contest began to grow insipid during that year for want of 
opposition from the pro-slavery side, and I left it, as Atchison 
and Stringfellow had already done. Since that time we know 
very well what has been the history of Kansas. It is now ap- 
parent that there are at least eight or nine free- State men in that 
Territory to one slave-State man. Whatever may have been in- 
tended, such, sir, has been the effect of adopting this principle, 
which has compelled Northern men to rcJy upon themselves, 
and act upon their own responsibility in this matter of making 
free States. This is safer than to leave this question to Congress 
and to law. I have a thousand times more confidence in the 
people than I have in Congress on this subject. 

"Now, Mr. Chairman, compare the resources of these two 
causes that contend for pre-eminence in the Territories — free la- 
bor and slave labor. How do we find the wealth and numbers 
of the North when contrasted with those of the South? I shall 
not dwell upon this point, for on a former occasion I opened that 
greatest book of martyrs, the Census of the United States, and 
showed how these facts were. 

"But how do the North and South compare in the power of 
combination? Why, we men of the North, called the Northern 
hive, live in towns and villages. Even our agricultural districts 
are quite densely peopled. We have, in Massachusetts, one hun- 
dred and thirty men to the square mile. If there is any difficul- 
ty abroad or at home — if there is any need for immediate action 



246 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

or remote action, it is easy for us to assemble, and consult, and 
determine what action is needed, and what shall be most effective. 
And, sir, when it was necessary to put some colonies into Kan- 
sas, I found no difficulty in having meetings in these towns and 
villages at very short notice. Plans were formed for making 
colonies, and for taking possession of the country in dispute, 
and thus the result contemplated was accomplished. But how 
can any such concert of action exist in that part of our country 
where there is only eighty-nine one-hundredths of a man to a 
square mile? What chance of holding meetings, of kindling en- 
thusiasm, of taking council, and of laying plans for accomplish- 
ing grand results? None w^hatever. 

"Then, sir, added to this ready combination, we also have 
great facilities of locomotion. Our people can migrate with but 
little difficulty. If there were a meeting to-night to put a colony 
into Kansas, all the arrangement might be perfected, and com- 
plete preparation made for starting, in two weeks. The next 
day after the meeting you would see flaming hand-bills on the 
streets headed, ' Ho for Kansas !' * Property for Sale I' Daguerre- 
otypes of some ' familiar faces,' and perhaps the old homestead, 
would be taken, and in two weeks the colony, on the lightning 
train, following a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by 
night, would be going on its way to their prairie home. 

"How can a Southern planter hope to rival this speed and 
readiness of transition? After he has determined to emigrate, 
his plantation is to be sold, and the purchaser is to be hunted up, 
and much time is required. And after a purchaser is found, 
credit must be given of from one to twenty years. But suppose 
all this accomplished, and the whole train of servants made 
ready for the journey, how like a funeral procession would they 
appear loitering along through the swamps of Alabama and Mis- 
sissippi! No, sir, you cannot compete with us in this game of 
emigration. We evidently have the advantage of j^ou every way. 
You have not power to make a contest in this matter interesting. 
I say this in no spirit of malignant exultation. I am lajang 
down facts, and I wish Southern men to understand their bear- 
ing and inevitable consequences. 

"But, sir, the Southern planter does not take his force of ne- 
groes to a disputed Territory. The case which I was just now 
supposing never really occurs in practice. It did not once occur 



FREE-STATE COLONIES. 247 

during the contest for the Territory of Kansas. I have never 
heard of a single slave-holder who took there even as many as 
five negroes. 

"The spirit of devotion and the spirit of Christianity some- 
times prompt to great sacrifices, but I am compelled to believe 
tliat the Southern planters are few in number who will hazard 
the loss of their slaves, even for the grand purpose of securing 
' scope and verge ' to African Christianization. 

" If, then, there is no motive of Christianity potent enough to 
influence slave-holders to move with their slaves to the Territo- 
ries of the West, there certainly can be no other sufficient induce- 
ment. There can be no pecuniary inducement to convey slaves 
where the very soil under their feet will be in dispute, and where 
the slaves themselves may be confiscated by an organic law ex- 
cluding slavery from the new State, or by the statute law of the 
Territory, called 'unfriendly legislation.' 

"Again, sir, there is a converting power in these free-State 
colonies, and it is a wonderful power. I assert, on the best au- 
thority, that the majority of the inhabitants of Kansas, who went 
there from slave States, are to-day free-State men. They came 
in contact with these Northern communities, they learned some 
facts of which they were not before cognizant, and they made up 
their minds that it was best for them and their children that 
Kansas should be a free State. This converting influence ex- 
tended to the governors of the Territory. * The extinguishers 
themselves took fire,' and to this day they give a charmingly 
brilliant light. 

"Now, sir, in addition to these resources, contrast the causes 
themselves, which are in conflict. Contrast free labor with slave 
labor. What are their histories and what their relative power? 
Free labor has covered the once sterile hills of New England 
with orchards and gardens and cornfields. It has filled our val- 
leys with the music of machinery and the hum of busy industry. 
The same creating power has built thriving cities and towns upon 
our Western w^aters, and clothed the prairies with fields of wav- 
ing grain. Scaling the Rocky Mountains, the same majestic 
poAver has opened the golden gates of the Pacific, and has trans- 
formed the solitary wilderness, 

" 'Where rolled the Oregon, and heard no sound, 
Save his own dashings,' 



248 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

into a prosperous State, destined to become the most important 
seat of commerce and manufactures on our Western coast, 

"Here are some of the trophies of free labor. Others yet, and 
greater, will be secured in the future. Stronger than Briareus, 
and possessing more arms than the giant monster brought to de- 
fend the throne of Jupiter against assailing Titans, free labor, 
unaided by law, relying solely on its own inherent energy, will 
always be found able to protect its own inheritance. 

"But where are the triumphs of slave labor? I will not reply 
— I press this comparison no further. 

"Now, sir, there is no chance of making another slave State 
from any Territory belonging to this confederacy. I state this 
as a fair and well-founded conclusion, that it may be considered 
by men from all portions of the country. I think that sensible 
men from the South already consider it a settled fact. What 
need, then, of quarrelling about measures for securing what is 
already secure? Security is all we ask, and that we have. That 
is the grand result of a contest to which you invited us, and to 
which we reluctantly came. We did not propose to you this 
very imequal game of emigration. It was a game which was 
proposed by the Democratic party, and the South enlisted in it, 
under the lead of that party. And what was the stake? You 
compelled the North to stake Kansas on that game, while you 
voluntarily offered to stake all the other Territories. For one, I 
was ready to accept that challenge. I was ready to enter upon 
that game upon such terms. I did do it. I do not now regret 
it. I do not want it otherwise than it is; for all that we have 
lost in achieving the victory that we have gained is more than 
ten thousand times repaid in that disciplined army of freemen, 
who are determined to see that all is right, from Minnesota to 
the Gulf of Mexico. These are the facts, and it is better for the 
whole country that such are the facts." 

It Tvould, therefore, have been but a graceful act 
of simple justice to the agency which had made 
the extension of slavery impossible, had Mr. Bout- 
well given the credit of this great work to the 
Plan of Freedom, as pursued and exempHfied by 



ABUNDANT PROOF. 249 

the Emigrant Aid Company and its numerous sis- 
ter organizations. 

But it is the mission of this book to supply the 
"missing hnks," not only in the speech of Mr. 
Boutwell, but in the writings and speeches of thou- 
sands of others. Proof without limit, and authori- 
ties without number, are waiting to co-operate in 
this ATork. At this time only a selection can be 
made, though to most readers this will be convincing 
proof. But should any still cherish doubts, it will 
be the work of the future historian, pursuing the 
course here indicated, to dig out of the archives 
of the last thirty-five years the materials for the 
pedestal upon which the statue of Historic Truth 
shall stand peerless and supreme. 

If further testimony be needed to show the pow- 
er of the Emigrant Aid Company in Kansas it can 
be found in quantities almost without limit, in the 
Congressional Glohe^ in the reports of Congres- 
sional committees, in thousands upon thousands of 
letters from the Kansas settlers to their friends in 
the States, in the editorials of all the Southern and 
of nearly all the Northern journals, in the reports 
of thousands of election speeches, and in all con- 
temporaneous and general records of whatever 
kind. 

The work of saving Kansas was done before the 
eyes of the whole world. We said we would do it, 
and stop the making of slave States. We also laid 
down our methods; we went on just as we had 
promised and used the methods proposed, and ac- 
complished the results aimed at, without the help 
11" 



250 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

of politicians, and in spite of the active hostility of 
the Abolitionists. 

No man, unless he be ignorant of the facts in the 
Kansas struggle, or completely blinded by malice 
or envy, will ever attempt to defraud the Emigrant 
Aid Company of the glory of having saved Kansas 
by defeating the slave power in a great and de- 
cisive contest. 

The logical sequences of this great work, in rela- 
tion to slavery, were : 

1. The conviction in the South that no more 
slave States could ever be formed in the Union. 

2. The attempt to secede, so that slave States 
might be formed outside of the Union. 

3. The Civil War. 

4. The Emancipation Proclamation as a military 
necessity. 

5. The Union preserved and slavery destroyed. 
The national results of the Kansas conflict may 

be briefly summarized : 

1. It stopped the making of slave States. 

2. It made the Kepublican party. 

3. It nearly elected Fremont, and did elect Lin- 
coln. 

4. It united and solidified the North against 
slavery, and was a necessary training to enable it 
to subdue secession.* 



* The wonderful increase of the antishivery vote in 1855 and 
1856 was brought about by the illegal assaults of the slave power 
upon the citizens of Kansas. The figures in New England and 
New York from 1848 to 1856 are here given. It will be seen 



SEQUENCES AND RESULTS. 251 

5. It drove the slave-holders, through despera- 
tion, into secession. 

6. It has given us a harmonious and enduring 
Union. 

7. It has emancipated the white race of the 
South, as well as the negroes, from the evils of 
slavery. 

8. It is even now regenerating the South. 



that the fall elections of 1854 were little influenced by the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise. 

New England. New York. 

1848 72,368 120,479 

1849 79,454 1,311 

1850 42,270 3,410 

1851 43,401 000 

1852 57,143 25,359 

1853 63,668 000 

(Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, a Lawful act.) 

1854 79, 632 000 

(After Unlawful aggression in Kansas. ) 

1855 184,850 136,698 

1856 307,417 276,004 



APPEl^DIX I. 

SUICIDE OF SLAVERY. 

By the request of many friends I here insert two 
of my Congressional speeches. They elucidate 
very fully the preceding chapters, by showing the 
practice and philosophy of the Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany. 

^ The first, upon the " Suicide of Slavery," was de- 
livered in the House of Eepresentatives on the 25th 
of March, 1858, as follows : 

"It may be expected, Mr. Chairman, that at this time I should 
say something in defence of the Pilgrims and of the State of 
Massachusetts ; for they have been repeatedly assailed on this 
floor within the last two weeks. But I shall make no defence. 
There are some things which I never attempt to defend. Among 
these are the Falls of Niagara, the White Mountains of New 
Hampshire, the Atlantic Ocean, Plymouth Rock, Bunker Hill, 
and the history of Massachusetts. Any man may assail either or 
all of them with perfect impunity, so far as I am concerned. 
And words of disparagement or vituperation directed against 
either of these objects, by any assailant, excite in me feelings 
very different from those of indignation— whether the assailant 
comes with a bow as long as that of the bold Robin Hood, or with 
a bow of sliorter range, like that of the gentleman from Alabama 
[Mr. Shorter]. [Laughter.] But I deprecate the disposition that 
impels these shafts against the sister States of this confederacy. 
I deprecate this sectional animosity whenever and wherever I see 
it evinced. I have heard too much of the aggressions of the North 
and of the aggressions of the South, in the past, to be very much 
iu love with either of these ideas. I have never been accustomed 
to speak of the aggressions of the slave power, and I have no 
purpose of doing it now or hereafter. If the one-hundredth part 



254 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

of the people of this country can make dangerous aggressions on 
the rights and interests of the other ninety-nine hundredth parts 
of the people, either by the force of strength or by the arts of 
diplomacy, I assure you that I shall be the last man to complain 
of it. I tliiuk that this slavery question is altogether too small a 
question to disturb so great a people as inhabit the United States 
of America. 

" For myself, I was always in favor of popular sovereignty, 
rightly so called. I am ready, for one, to agree to-day that the 
Territories belonging to this Government shall be open to settle- 
ment at any time, when Congress thinks fit so to open them, and 
that the people of all parts of the country shall go into them 
with the assurance of absolute and complete non-intervention ; 
with the assurance that whenever any chief executive, official, or 
non-resident shall interfere, by fraud or violence, in their affairs, 
he shall either be impeached or hanged; with the assurance that 
when the people shall have the ratio of representation required 
by law, and shall come to Congress with a Constitution repub- 
lican in form, they shall be admitted into the Union as a State. 
This, sir, is popular sovereignty, and it is what was practised in 
this country two centuries ago. 

" The people of the Plymouth colony had the privilege of 
choosing their own governor and of making their own laws. 
The same was true of the New Haven colony, and of the colony 
of the Providence Plantations. They always did it. I believe 
the Crown of England never appointed a governor for these col- 
onies; certainly not for the last two. But were those people, 
without ever having exercised the right of self-government, bet- 
ter prepared to govern themselves than are our people, educated 
under our State governments, who go into our Territories? Why, 
then, should we continue to have an ' Ahab to trouble Israel,' 
while he lays the blame of his own misconduct upon the emi- 
grant aid societies ? Why not cut off these Territories from all 
connection with the General Government, legislative or execu- 
tive? Then we shall have no more agitation in Congress, and no 
more contention in the Territories. But so long as this connec- 
tion continues, so long as we have a President trying to bias by 
his appointments, and, perhaps, by the United States troops, the 
will of the people, so long shall we have agitation, and we shall 
have enough of it. 



SUICIDE OF SLAVERY. 255 

"Well, sir, I have nothing to find fault about. I am very well 
pleased with the present tendency of events. But, sir, there are 
those who are dissatisfied, and who are inclined to invoke a cer- 
tain deity — I think a false deity — which presides over a portion 
of this Union; a deity which has been invoked by great men on 
great occasions, and by little men on little occasions, for a long 
time past — a deity in whose expected presence both the people 
and the politicians have sometimes stood aghast — 'when he,' in 
prospect only, 'from his horrid hair shook pestilence and war.' 
This sulphurous god is Disunion. This Capitol Hill has been 
a veritable Mount Carmel for the last quarter of a century, upon 
which experiments have been tried with this bogus deity. One 
day upon Mount Carmel was sufficient to determine the destiny 
of Baal and iiis prophets. But here, we, the most patient people 
in the world, witness these invocations year after year, with ex- 
emplary endurance, expecting that the great Is-to-be will some 
time come. And you and I, Mr. Chairman, even during the 
present session of Congress, have witnessed attempts to kindle 
here the fires upon the altar of Southern rights. But the sacrifice, 
the altar, and the spectators were as cold as alabaster. The 
prophets only were warm ; but they were warm, not from the 
presence of the god, but from his absence. He does not make 
his appearance. The great Is-to-be does not come. He has either 
gone on a very long journey, or else he is in a very deep sleep. 

" Well, sir, shall we have this deity of Disunion invoked for- 
ever? Who is to blame? If the North has given cause, what 
have we done? What cause of disunion has ever proceeded from 
us? Have 3'ou not had everything jowv own way? Have we not 
let you have the Democratic party to use as you please ? 
[Laughter.] Have you not had the Government for a long time? 
And have we not let you use it just as you had a mind to? We, 
sir, were busy about our commerce, extending it around the 
world; about our railroads; our internal improvements; our col- 
leges, and all those things which interest our people. We knew 
that you had a taste for governing, and that by the indulgence 
you might be gratified without serious injury to us. For many 
years you have had your own way, but now you come here and 
cry out ' disunion.' Why, what more can we do? 

" Well, it may be that we have encouraged a mistake on your 
part. It may be that we have given you some reason to suppose 



256 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

that this temporary courtesy of governing, which we have ex- 
tended, was a permanent right. However, if you have fallen 
into that error, we will, perhaps, at some future time disabuse 
and correct you. But whatever blame there is anywhere, what- 
ever cause there is for disunion, must attach to the action of the 
slave power, commanding and controlling the Democratic party, 
and to no one else in the country. Therefore, at this time, I come 
with exultation— not, to be sure, with malignant exultation — to 
speak for a few moments upon the decline and fall of slavery — 
nay, sir, further, upon the suicide of slavery in this land. I will 
show you by what acts the two most important pillars of its sup- 
port have been removed, and that the whole system of slavery 
must therefore fall. And these two events have been accom- 
plished, if not by its direct efforts, at least by the connivance of 
this same party, impelled by this same controlling agency. 

" I will first show you how the moral power of this institu- 
tion has been destroyed, by what act, and then I will show you 
how and by what act its political power is forever doomed. But, 
sir, how did an institution like this ever have a moral power is 
a question for us to examine. In the first place, we are told by 
Southern men that we have a nation of heathen in our land; and 
we are told by the same authority that we have an institution 
here for their regeneration. Now, sir, if we have, from necessity, 
a nation of heathen in our land, and if slavery is an institution 
for their regeneration, it is very clear that slavery has a moral 
power. But, says the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Gartrell], 
speaking of negroes, * They are idle, dissolute, improvident, lazy, 
unthrifty, who think not of to-morrow, who provide but scantily 
for to-day.' 

"I will also give you other proof. Here it is : 

" ' Who would credit it, that in these years of benevolent and 
successful missionary effort in this Christian republic, there are 
over two millions of human beings in the condition of heathen, 
and, in some respects, in a worse condition? From long-con- 
tinued and close observation, we believe their moral and religious 
condition is such that they may justly be regarded as the heathen 
of this Christian country.' — Committee of Synod of South Car- 
olina and Georgia, in 1833. 

" 'After making all reasonable allowances, our colored pop- 
ulation can be considered, at the best, but semi-heathens.' — Ken- 



SUICIDE OF SLAVERY. 257 

txicTcy Union's Circular to the Ministers of the Gospel in Kentucky, 
1834. 

" ' There seems to be an almost entire absence of moral prin- 
ciple among the mass of our colored population.' — C. W. Gooch, 
Esq., Prize Essay on Agriculture in Virginia. 

" 'There needs no stronger illustration of the doctrine of de- 
pravity than the state of human nature on plantations in gener- 
al. .. . Their advance in years is but a progression to the higher 
grades of iniquity.'— //t?.?^.. C. C. Pinckney, Address hefm^e the 
South Carolina Agricultural Society, at Charleston, 1829, second 
edition, pages 10, 12. 

"The Mary ville (Tennessee) //i^t'?%^?icc?' of October 4, 1835, 
says of the slaves of the South-west, that their ' condition, through 
time, will be second only to that of the wretched creatures in 
hell.' 

" Here, then, is a field for great missionary labor; and it is fort- 
unate that, under these circumstances, we happen to have an in- 
stitution which is perfectly adapted to the regeneration of a lost 
and ruined race. I quote from the honorable member from the 
State of Virginia, in a speech delivered here, some time ago, in 
the House of Representatives: 

" ' I believe that the institution of slavery is a noble one; that 
it is necessary for the good, the well-being, of the negro race. 
Looking to history, I go further, and I say, in the presence of this 
assembly, and under all the imposing circumstances surround- 
ing me, that I believe it is God's institution. Yes, sir, if there is 
anything in the action of the great Author of us all; if there is 
anything in the conduct of his chosen people ; if there is any- 
thing in the conduct of Christ himself, w^ho came upon this earth, 
and yielded up his life as a sacrifice, that all through his death 
might live; if there is anything in the conduct of his apostles, 
who inculcated obedience on the part of slaves towards their 
masters as a Christian duty, then we must believe that the insti- 
tution is from God.' — Hon. Wm. Smith, of Virginia, in a speech 
in the House of Representatives. 

"Again, I quote from the speech of the honorable gentleman 
from Georgia [Mr. Gartrell], in regard to this same sentiment: 

" 'Every sentiment expressed in that eloquent extract meets 
my hearty approbation. As a Christian man, believing in the 
teachings of Holy Writ, I am here to-day before a Christian na- 



258 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

tion to reaffirm and reannounce the conclusion to which that 
distinguished gentleman came — that this institution, however 
much it may have been reviled, is of God.' 

"Mr. Chairman these are not the only authorities on this sub- 
ject. You and I have heard from the other side, day after day, 
quotations from the Bible, intending to prove the same thing; and 
you and I know that there are honest men in the slave States who 
believe that this is a fact. I have seen such men myself, and 
have conversed with them. They have told me that slavery was 
an absolute curse; and that the only reason why they held their 
slaves a day was that they owed them certain religious duties, 
and must keep them to look after their spiritual welfare. They 
feared that if their slaves were cast loose upon the world, with 
nobody to look after their spiritual interests, they would be spir- 
itually lost, I heard this from a gentleman from Kentucky, 
and again from a gentleman from Augusta, Georgia, and I believe 
in my heart that both of these gentlemen were honest in these 
views, 

" I am not here to impugn any man's motives. I put this upon 
the ground that is claimed by Southern men; and when I lis- 
tened to the gentlemen on the other side, reading honestl}^ from 
the sacred volume in defence of this institution, as coming from 
God, and as a means for the regeneration of a heathen race in our 
land, I felt impelled to use the language of the Apostle to the 
Gentiles, which he employed on Mars Hill : ' Oh, Athenians, I 
perceive that in all things ye are exceedingly given to religion.' 
[Laughter.] Now, sir, since this institution has done all it ever 
can in this capacity, and since it is now destroyed as a converting 
and regenerating power, I stand here to give it its proper place 
in ecclesiastical history, for its right place it has never yet had. 

"In order to understand what position it is entitled to, we 
must, to some extent, speak by comparison, because we cannot 
speak absolutely on these matters of religion. The religious 
journals of the free States have oftentimes most unreasonably 
exulted over our religious efforts, when they contrasted them 
with the efforts of our Southern brethren. I have seen placed 
in parallel columns, in Northern journals, the contributions of 
the free States and the contributions of the slave States; and 
there were mighty words of exultation, unbecoming a Christian 
journal or Christian people at any time, when it was shown that 



SUICIDE OF SLAVERY. 259 

our contributions for foreign missions were a hundred-fold more 
tban yours. It is true we make more contributions. The city 
of Boston gives, for foreign missions, perhaps more than all the 
slave States; and the city of New York perhaps more than Bos- 
ton. But what of that? We give a few cents apiece, and only 
a few cents, for foreign missions each year, which amounts to a 
great sum, because we are a great people. We send men to 
heathen nations far over the water, to tell them about their fut- 
ure destiny. We are careful not to send our best men; we keep 
our Notts and Waylands, and our Beechers and Cheevers, at 
home; but sometimes a Judson escapes from us before we know 
what he is. This is about the extent we submit to self-sacrifice 
for the sake of the heathen. 

" Is there any cause for exultation in this, when we see what 
our Southern brethren have done and are doing ? When have 
we ever taken the heathen to our hearth-stones and to our bosoms? 
AVhen have we ever admitted the heathen to social communion 
with ourselves and our children? When have we ever taken the 
heathen to our large cities to show them the works of art, or to 
the watering-places to show them fashionable society and beau- 
tiful scenery? Did you ever see a Yankee at the White Sulphur 
Springs shedding a benign religious influence over a little con- 
gregation of heathen companions? [Laughter.] We have pious 
women in the Northern States, whose bright example has made 
attractive the paths of virtue and religion. Conspicuous among 
them, in every good work, are the wives of our ministers and 
deacons; but not one of these, within the range of my acquaint- 
ance, would consider herself qualified, either by nature or by 
grace, to be chamber-maid, dry-nurse, and spiritual adviser to ten 
or twenty heathens in her own family. But, sir, had these worthy 
dames been noble dames; had they come down to us from the 
blood of the Norman kings, through the bounding pulses of sun- 
dry cavaliers, and then had been willing to assume these humble 
offices of Cliristian charity, we should have believed the time, so 
often prayed for, had already come, when ' kings should be fa- 
thers and queens nursing mothers in the Church.' Where, then, 
is the ground for this exultation on the part of the North? I tell 
you that it cannot be prompted by anything but a rotund, bul- 
bous self -righteousness. So much, then, for the social sacrifices 
of our Southern brethren. 



260 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

" What other sacrifices have they made to regenerate this race? 
Great moral and intellectual sacrifices. I will read what South- 
ern men say on this subject. 

"Judge Tucker, of Virginia, said in 1801: 

" 'I say nothing of the baneful effects of slavery on our moral 
character, because you know I have long been sensible of this 
point.' 

" The Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina and Georgia said, 
in their report of 1834: 

"'Those only who have the management of these servants 
know what the hardening effect of it is upon their own feelings 
towards them.' 

"Judge Summers, of Virginia, said, in a speech in 1832, in al- 
most the same words: 

" * A slave population produces the most pernicious effect upon 
the manners, habits, and character of those among whom it ex- 
ists.' 

"Judge Nichols, of Kentucky, in a speech in 1837, said: 

" 'The deliberate convictions of my most matured considera- 
tion are, that the institution of slavery is a most serious injury 
to the habits, manners, and morals of our white population; that 
it leads to sloth, indolence, dissipation, and vice.' 

" So said Mr. Jefferson: 

" ' The man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and 
morals uncontaminated' [in the midst of slavery]. 

"John Randolph, on the floor of Congress, said: 

" ' Where are the trophies of this infernal traffic? The hand- 
cuffs, the manacle, the blood-stained cowhide! What man is 
worse received in society for being a hard master? Who denies 
tlie hand of sister or daughter to such monsters?' 

"I might quote a hundred other Southern authorities of the 
same kind, showing the baneful effect of this institution upon 
the moral and intellectual character of the South. I might also 
quote from the United States Census. I have the papers here, 
but time will not allow. 

"Now, in addition to these moral and intellectual sacrifices 
which our Southern brethren admit, there are pecuniary sacri- 
fices which you know to be very great; indeed, had Virginia 
been free fifty years ago, had she been exempt from this great 
tendency to Christianize the African race, she would have been 



SUICIDE OF SLAVERY. 261 

worth more this day than all the Atlantic States south of New 
Jersey. And should she by any chance become free, you will 
see her wealth and her population increase in proportion as this 
missionary spirit is diminished. [Laughter.] It is true, our 
Southern brethren, impressed with this great idea of Christian- 
izing the African race, having for their only ambition to present 
the souls of then- negroes, without spot or blemish, before the 
throne of the Eternal, have sacrificed almost everything, I could 
quote from Southern men upon this subject. The sagacious 
statesman who governs the Old Dominion, in a speech a few 
years ago, said : 

" 'But in all the four cardinal resources— wonderful to tell, 
disagreeable to tell, shameful to announce — but one source of all 
four, in time past, has been employed to produce wealth. We 
have had no work in manufacturing, and commerce has spread 
its wings and flown from us, and agriculture has only skimmed 
the surface of mother earth. Three out of the four cardinal 
virtues have been idle; our young men, over their cigars and 
toddy, have been talking politics, and the negroes have been left 
to themselves, until we have all grown poor together.' 

"But trials and tribulations and poverty have ever beset the 
path-way of the saints. In the earliest da3^s, they * wandered 
about in sheep -skins and goat -skins, persecuted, afflicted, tor- 
mented.' Even now, in the nineteenth century, the condition of 
our Southern brethren is not much improved, since they are com- 
pelled ' to chase the stump-tailed steer over sedge patches which 
outshine the sun to get a tough steak,' and to listen to the per- 
petual cry of 'Debts! debts!' 'Taxes! taxes!' 

"In this age of material progress, you have seen the North 
outstrip you; but, with true Christian patience and Christian de- 
votion, you have adhered to the great work of regenerating the 
heathen. [Laughter.] Through evil report and through good 
report, reproached and maligned abroad by those who did not 
understand your motives, and, worst of all, sometimes abused at 
home by the ungrateful objects of your Christian charity, you 
have still pressed on towards the mark of your high calling. 
Now, sir, when was there ever a class of men so devoted and so 
self-sacrificing? I have read the history of the Apostles; I have 
read the history of the Reformers, of the Scotch Covenanters, of 
the Huguenots, and of the Crusaders; and, I tell you, not in one 



262 TxHE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

or all of these have I seen any such heroic self-sacrifice for the 
good of another race, or for the good of other men, as I do see 
in the history of these slave States. I have seen Fox's ' Book of 
Martyrs,' but there is nothing in that to compare at all with the 
martyrs of the South. The Census of the United States is the 
greatest book of martyrs ever printed. [Laughter.] Other books 
treat of martyrs as individuals; the Census of the United States 
treats of them by counties and by States. I can see how a man, 
impressed with a grand and noble sentiment, should perhaps, in 
excitement or in an emergency, give up his life in support of it; 
but I cannot see how a man can sacrifice his friends, his family, 
and his country for a religious idea or an abstraction. 

" Here, then, sir, is the position of our Southern brethren upon 
this subject. But the worst is yet to be told — the doleful con- 
clusion of the whole matter. They have made sacrifices, and it 
seems to me that they were entitled to the rewards for them; and 
I doubt not that they have often consoled themselves in contem- 
plating the rewards in the future which must await them for 
such good services in the present. I liave no doubt, sir, that of- 
tentimes, seeing they have not treasures laid up on earth, they 
supposed they had treasures laid up in heaven. [Laughter.] But 
just at that time, when they seemed to be almost in the fruition 
of their labors, when the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Ander- 
son], in great exultation of spirit, was speaking of the institution 
that had raised the negro from barbarism to Christianity and 
civilization, and when the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Hughes] 
had caught the inspiration, and said that although the body of 
the African might be toiling under the lash, ' his soul was free, 
and could converse on the subliraest principles of science and 
philosophy ' — when faith had almost become sight — just then, 
sir, out comes the Supreme Court with the decision that a ne- 
gro HAS NO soul! [Laughter.] 

" 'Angels and ministers of grace defend us!' All these treas- 
ures that were supposed to have been laid up 'where neither 
moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break 
through nor steal,' have been invaded by the decision of the Su- 
preme Court, and scattered to the four winds of heaven. More 
than two centuries of prayers and tears, of heroic self-sacrifice 
and Christian devotion, of faith and hope, of temporal and spir- 
itual agony, have come to this 'lame and impotent conclusion.' 



SUICIDE OF SLAVERY. 263 

[Laughter.] The moral dignitj^ of the grandest missionary en- 
terprise of this age is annihilated. 

"As a Northern man, I stand here a disinterested spectator of 
these events. If I do not like the decision of the court, I have 
a higher law. The negro himself can appeal to the court of 
heaven; but what refuge has the Southern Church? [Renewed 
hiughter.] None whatever. This decision is a blow, direct and 
terrible, falling with crushing violence upon our Southern breth- 
ren. This Supreme Court, with cruel and relentless hostility, 
has persecuted the Southern Church as the dragon of the Apoca- 
lypse pursued the woman into the wilderness, seeking to devour 
her offspring. [Much laughter.] 

"What motives could have impelled the court to this act? I 
have no doubt a patriotic motive. I am not here to impugn the 
motives of any man, or of any set of men, much less of the high- 
est judicial tribunal in this land. No doubt, sir, their motives 
were patriotic, for they had witnessed the devastation of this 
terrible religious fanaticism through the South. They had seen 
the ravages of this disastrous missionary monomania, and they 
determined that there must be an end of it; and how could they 
so effectually end it as by annihilating at once the object of its 
aims and aspirations. That, sir, they have done. 

"Here, then, endcth the moral jjoicer of the institution of 
slaverJ^ 

"I come now to the consideration of the event which just as 
surely has doomed to destruction the j'oUtical fioiccr of that in- 
stitution— I mean the repeal of the Missouri Compromise meas- 
ure in the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. That act, sir, I 
will show to you— if it ever was committed by the slave power 
—to have been a suicidal act. What need was there for repeal- 
ing that Compromise, or of admitting slavery into Kansas hy laic? 
Was not the South sure enough of the Territory as it was before? 
I think— and this is my honest conviction— that had it not been 
for that act, Kansas would have been inevitably a slave State. 
We of the North had no particular interest in that Territory. 
It w^as put down in our geographies as the great American des- 
ert. We had not considered it of much importance; but we re- 
lied on the law to keep slavery out of it, and to preserve it to 
freedom. We of the North have had too high an idea of the 
power of the General Government and of laic, either for free- 



264 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

dom or against freedom. Sir, this General Government has but 
little power over this question. It is not a motive power. It is 
only a registry, an exponent of power. It is the log-book of the 
ship of State, and not the steam-engine that propels the ship, or 
the wind that fills the canvas. We would like to have the log- 
book kept right, to show us our true position; but we do not 
now consider the Government as the motive power. The motive 
power of this nation, as of all nations, is the people in their 
homes; and as the people in their homes are, so is your character 
and so is your progress. If the people in their homes in Kansas 
had been pro-slavery, what could the North have opposed to it? 
It was emigration, and emigration only, that could have made 
Kansas a State, either slave or free. The great law that governs 
emigration is this: that emigration follows the parallels of lati- 
tude westward. Under that law, Kansas would have been set- 
■tled entirely by a pro-slavery people, as was the southern part of 
Indiana, and as was the southern part of Illinois. We in the 
North, trusting in the protection of the law, w^ould have had no 
remedy. People in favor of slavery would have gone there, and 
if they were compelled at first to adopt a free Constitution in 
order to shape their institutions according to any law concern- 
ing the Territory, they might have soon reversed that position. 
In fact, the decision of the Supreme Court has now made any 
such thing unnecessary. They might have formed just such a 
Constitution as they pleased. Well, then, we would thus, in all 
probability, have had Kansas a slave State without the Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill. But the passage of that bill, if slavery had been 
certain before, seemed to the majority of the people in the North 
to make it almost inevitable. Histor}' warranted this fear. Judg- 
ing from the case of Indiana, there seemed to be no chance what- 
ever for freedom in Kansas, after the opportunity for slavery to 
enter there had been given. There was Missouri on the confines 
of the Territory — and the most densely peopled portion of Mis- 
souri, too. Freedom-loving men, desiring to go to that Territory, 
would have had to travel hundreds and thousands of miles. 
The men who lived on the line of Kansas, as well as other South- 
ern men w'ho entertained the same idea — though they did not ex- 
press it then, for fear of losing the bill — anticipated that the pas- 
sage of the bill Avould settle the question for slaver}^ in Kansas 
forever. That was the evidence of the early history of Indiana. 



SUICIDE OF SLAVERY. 365 

When tliat Territory was opened for settlement, a few slave- 
holders, perhaps a dozen or a score, went over from Kentucky, 
and, contrary to the wishes both of the President and Congress, 
contrary to the ordinance of 1787, established slavery; and they 
obtained such control over that young Territory that petitions, 
signed by many of the inhabitants, praying Congress to suspend 
the prohibition of slavery, were presented to Congress, year after 
year, from 1803 to 1807. These few slave-holders of the Terri- 
tor}^ of Indiana acquired such control over the inhabitants of 
that Territory, because they were an organization, as slavery is 
everywhere and at all times an organization. It was a concen- 
tration of capital, a concentration of influence, and a concentra- 
tion of power, which our emigrants from the free States, coming 
one by one, were unable to resist; and had it not been for the 
overwhelming population which poured in from the North in 
1807 and 1808, the prohibition of slavery would have been sus- 
pended. Had it not been for John Randolph, it would have 
been suspended in 1803; and had it not been for Mr. Franklin 
in the Senate, it might have been suspended in 1807; and both 
of these were Southern men. 

"Well, sir, I have said that slave-holders are everywhere an 
organization. There is a community of interest, a bond of feel- 
ing and of sympathy, which combines and concentrates all ef- 
forts to defend slavery where it is, and to extend it to places 
where it is not. I will quote from the last number of De Bow's 
Beview, everywhere acknowledged to be good Southern authority. 
In an article defending the New England Emigrant Aid Compa- 
ny, the writer says: 

"'We of the South have been practising "Organized Emi- 
gration " for a century, and hence have outstripped the North in 
the acquisition of land. The owner of a hundred slaves, who, 
with his overseer, moves to the West, carries out a self-support- 
ing, self-insuring, well-organized community. This is the sort 
of "Organized Emigration" which experience shows suits the 
South and the negro race, whilst Mr. Thayer's is equally well 
adapted to the whites.' 

"Then, what fault can be found with our efforts to organize 

freedom by means of our emigrant aid societies, that enable our 

citizens to go to the Territories in companies of twenty, fifty, 

one hundred, or two hundred, to take possession of the West, 

12 



266 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

and to locate there the institutions under which they choose to 
live? 

" And here I come to the defence of this association. It has 
been assailed, time and again, on this floor, and I have never 
been allowed even the privilege of putting questions to its assail- 
ants. The gentleman from Missouri [Mr, Anderson] called it 
'illegal and unconstitutional,' It has been so assailed by the 
successor of Millard Fillmore, But where is the proof? Which 
of its acts has been shown to be illegal or unconstitutional? If 
it was illegal and unconstitutional, why has not the organization 
been crushed by the courts ? We contend that any organization 
which is allowed to continue its existence from year to year, and 
to carry on its business, has the presumption, at least, of a legal 
right to do so. We claim that for the Emigrant Aid Company. 

"But the gentleman from Missouri professes to have authority 
in regard to this matter. He has said that we may employ this 
emigrant aid society in promoting emigration to Central ^America 
and to foreign countries, but that we must ' beicare ' how we 
do so in colonizing the Territories of this Government, Mr, 
Chairman, if the gentleman from Missouri has any authority in 
these premises I hope he will exercise it. I ask him to publish 
a hand-book for emigrants, telling us how we may go into a Ter- 
ritor}^; whether we may ride or must go on foot; whether we 
may take our wives and children with us, or must leave them at 
home; whether we may take some of our neighbors with us, 
with their agricultural implements and steam-engines, or whether 
we 7nust go into the Territories without any neighbors what- 
ever; whether we may get horses or oxen from the free States, 
or whether we must content ourselves to take mules from the 
State of Missouri, [Laughter.] 

' ' Now, sir, let us have not only the book, but the reasons for it. 
Let us know how far we may go, according to the law, in this 
matter of emigration. I recommend the gentleman from Mis- 
souri to take some lessons from the gentleman from Mississippi 
[Mr. Quitman] on the rights of emigration. I think he can get 
broader views upon this subject if he will consult that gentle- 
man, and I think he will allow Northern men to go to the places 
which they have a right to go to by the law of this land, in such 
society, if it be law-abiding, as they may choose to select for 
themselves. 



SUICIDE OF SLAVERY, 267 

"I have said that the great general law of emigration is that 
the emigrants shall follow the parallels of latitude in this coun- 
try. There are some exceptions to this. The gold in California 
led our emigrants from the extreme north across many parallels 
of latitude. That was a sufficient disturbing cause. The ex- 
istence of slavery in the slave States of this country has driven 
thirty-five out of every hundred emigrants across Northern par- 
allels to the free States of the Union. That was another great 
and powerful cause. But there is another cause sufficient to 
carry emigration southward over parallels of latitude. That is, 
the argument of cheap lands, with the additional advantage of 
organized emigration. The objections that have heretofore ex- 
isted among Northern men to settling in Southern States are, by 
this mode of emigrating, entirely obviated. The Northern man, 
with his family of children, would not heretofore go into a 
Southern State in the absence of schools and churches. But 
when, combined with one or two hundred or one or two thou- 
sand of his friends and neighbors, he goes into a slave State, he 
carries with him schools and churches and the mechanic arts, 
all these difficulties are obviated; and, besides, he has the in- 
ducement of going where the land can be bought at slave-State 
prices, in the expectation of finding it come up probably in a 
few years to free-State prices, which are five or six times greater 
than slave-State prices. Here is the great inducement of in- 
creasing wealth. Let a colony start from Massachusetts, and 
settle on almost any land in the State of Virginia— in Greenville, 
Southampton, Dinwiddle, or Accomack, where the lands do not 
average so high as three dollars an acre, by the census of 1850 — 
and the very day they settle there the value of the land is more 
than doubled. There is better land for sale to-day in Tennessee 
and North Carolina, for fifty cents per acre, than can be bought 
for ten times that sum in any free State. 

"How can such an appeal to the emigrating population of the 
North, in favor of organized emigration to the slave States, be 
resisted ? I know of no means of resisting it. Certainly you 
can have no reason for resisting it, but every reason to encour- 
age it. We do not come as your enemies; we come as j'-our 
friends. We do not come to violate 5^our laws, but to improve 
our own condition. This movement southward is destined to 
continue and to increase. Sir, if slavery were as sacred as the 



268 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

Ark of the Covenant, and if it were defended by angels, I doubt 
•whether it could withstand the progress of this age and the 
monej^-makiug tendencies of the Yankee. But it is not as sa- 
cred as the Ark of the Covenant, and nobody believes that it is 
defended by angels. 

"But, sir, there begins to be an enlightened idea in these border 
slave States upon this subject. A year ago, when I proposed 
to plant a few colonies in Virginia, several journals in the Old 
Dominion threatened me with hemp and grape-vine if I should 
ever set foot in that Territory. Well, I thought I would make 
the experiment, I went into w^estern Virginia and into eastern 
Kentucky. I addressed numerous audiences in both of those 
States, and everywhere where I asked the people if they had 
any objection to their land being worth four or five times what 
it was, they said 'No.' [Laughter.] I asked them if they had 
any objection to the manufacture of ploughs and wagons in 
Wayne County. There never had been a manufacturing estab- 
lishment between the Big Sandy and Guyandotte. Though no 
portion of this continent is better situated for manufacturing 
purposes — having more than thirty thousand miles of river com- 
munication, which affords cheap transportation to the best mar- 
kets, with a healthful climate and inexhaustible supplies of coal 
and iron and timber of the best quality— yet every manufact- 
ured article was imported into this natural paradise of me- 
chanics. There was not a newspaper published between the 
two rivers. I asked if they had any objection to a good, sub- 
stantial, business newspaper published there, and to have schools 
and churches and the mechanic arts established in that county. 
With one voice they replied : ' None, whatever. We welcome 
you to our county, and to all its advantages.' This was a gen- 
erous and manly reception, worthy of the history of the Old 
Dominion. At every meeting we were welcomed by the unani- 
mous voice of the people ; and now I believe that there are at 
least twelve newspapers in the State of Virginia advocating 
these colonies coming into the State. The sagacious statesman 
who is the Governor of the Old Dominion gives us a general 
and most cordial welcome. Well, the prospect is very good and 
inviting; and if there is any danger of a dissolution of the Union 
— in fact, if there is any weak spot in the Union — I think it 
would be a good thing to patch it over with an additional layer 



SUICIDE OF SLAVERY. 269 

of population. [Applause.] There never would be any dis- 
union if we could only attend to it, and see where the weak 
places are, and mend them in time. 

"But there is another exception to the rule I have laid down. 
Central America will prove abundantly sufficient to carry emi- 
gration southward, even across many parallels of latitude. She 
offers the grand inducements of commerce, of a climate unsur- 
passed in salubrity (in the central and Pacific portions), of a fer- 
tile soil, which yields three crops a year, and, more than all, 
lands so cheap that every man may buy. We have already be- 
gun to move, and what to some men seemed to be the umbilical 
cord of an embryo Southern Empire is likely, by these means, 
to be cut off, if it is not cut off already. [Laughter,] Every- 
body knows the physiological consequences. 

" Well, sir, I wish now to say that there is a higher power than 
man's in relation to this matter of freedom in Kansas. It 
seemed at first to the whole North that the project of establish- 
ing slavery there would exclude freedom, and the whole North 
was intimidated by it. There was the greatest reluctance mani- 
fested to emigration in that direction from the North. Every- 
where there was fear; everywhere despair. 

" * As they drifted on their path 
There was silence deep as death, 
And the boldest held his breath 
For a time.' 

"Six months of persistent effort in writing and speaking were 
required to induce the first colony of only thirty men to go to 
Kansas. The people had become impressed with the idea that 
Kansas was destined to be a slave State; but as soon as the first 
colony had reached that Territory, and had founded the famous 
city of Lawrence, the whole train of Northern emigration was 
turned from Nebraska and from Minnesota to Kansas. And 
they have filled Kansas with free-State men — such men as are 
fitted for the high position they occupy; for Kansas is the geo- 
graphical centre of our possessions. Its position in itself makes it 
the arbiter of our fate in all coming time, destined to give law 
to all between the Missouri River and the golden gates of the 
Pacific, and to make its power felt all the w^ay between the 
British possessions and the Gulf of Mexico. Never were more 



270 TEE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

noble men needed for a more noble work. It was necessary 
that Plymouth Rock should repeat itself in Kansas, The Pu- 
ritan character was needed there; but how could it be had, ex- 
cept by such discipline as made the Puritans; for if it was nec- 
essary that they should be elevated like the Pilgrim Fathers of 
New England, it was also necessary that they should have the 
training of the Pilgrim Fathers. They were peculiar in their 
early history, and peculiar in their late history. They had their 
early education among the rocks and mountains of New Eng- 
land. I have known of great men.in times past, who came from 
the forest, who came from hills and mountains, but I never 
have known them to be raised on Wilton carpets. These men 
received their early training among the rugged hills of New 
England, where they waged incessant war on ice and granite, 
on snow and gravel-stones. It is there where they acquired their 
energy and their power. And, sir, I think the Yankee race has 
at least an octave more compass than any other nation on earth. 
I know a Yankee doughface is half an octave meaner than any 
other man. [Laughter,] 

"Sir, some of the best of this Yankee race went to Kansas. 
They were stigmatized, six months before they arrived there, as 
thieves and paupers. Well, if such men as those who have built 
Lawrence, and Topeka, and Manhattan, and Ossawatomie, and 
Quindaro, were thieves and paupers, what do you think we re- 
spectable, well-to-do people will accomplish in the Old Domin- 
ion, where we are now becoming acquainted with some of the 
'first families'? These free-State men of Kansas have been re- 
viled by their inferiors at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue 
many times during the last three years. The other day, in the 
other end of this Capitol, such men were denominated slaves. 
Sir, we are slaves! I admit it; but our only master is the Great 
Jehovah. These heroes in Kansas having for their ancestors the 
Pilgrim Fathers, ' sons of sires who baffled crowned and mitred 
tyranny,' disciplined in their early years by the rugged teach- 
ings of adversit}^ seem to have been well prepared for their high 
mission. 

"But the discipline of worthy example, of New England edu- 
cation, and of poverty and adversity, were not enough. The dis- 
cipline of tyranny was requisite for their perfection. This dis- 
cipline has been of use in all ages of the world. David was not 



SUICIDE OF SLAVERY. 371 

fit to rule over Israel until he had been hunted like a ' partridge 
in the mountains' by the envious and malignant Saul. Brutus 
■was not fitted to expel the Tarquins until he had endured their 
t3Tanny for years. What would Moses have done but for Pha- 
raoh? Where would have been the Reformers of the sixteenth 
century, where the Puritans in the seventeenth, and the Patriots 
in the eighteenth, but for Leo the Tenth, Charles the First, and 
George the Third? But Charles the First lost his head, and 
George the Third his colonies, for less tyranny than has been 
practised upon the people of Kansas by the two successors of 
Millard Fillmore. If we thank God for patriots, we should also 
thank him for tyrants; for what great achievements have patri- 
ots ever made without the stimulus of tyranny? Without vice, 
virtue itself must be insipid ; and without wicked and mean men 
there could be no heroes. 

"The brave man rejoices in the opposition of the enemy of 
his rights. Wicked and mean men are the stepping-stones on 
which the good and great ascend to heaven and immortal fame. 

" These miscreants, cursed both by God and man, subserve im- 
portant interests. The sacred volume which unfolds to us the 
life and sufferings of the Saviour of men makes record also of 
Pontius Pilate and of Judas Iscariot as necessary agencies in 
that great redemption. 

" So I will denounce no man who has fought against freedom 
in Kansas as entirely useless in the grand result. But what a 
team to draw the chariots of freedom! Atchison and Stringf el- 
low and John Calhoun, with the two successors of Millard Fill- 
more to lift at the wheels." 



APPENDIX II. 

SPEECH ON THE CENTKAL AMERICAN QUESTION. 

The folio wing sjDeech, on the " Central America " 
question, was delivered January 7, 1858. 

The Southern representatives had occupied the 
floor several days upon this matter, and had ap- 
pointed a committee "to report whether the soil 
and climate of Central America were adapted to 
the people of the Southern States of the Union." 

No speech except this was made by a Northern 
representative. The committee never reported, 
and there was not another word said upon the sub- 
ject. Mr. Thayer said : 

"Mr. Chairman, — It is my purpose to offer an amendment 
to the resolution which is now before the committee, for the 
purpose of widening the proposed investigation. I do not in- 
tend to discuss at all the topics which the committee has been 
considering during the past three days. I am not here to con- 
sider whether Mr. Walker was legally or illegally arrested, or 
whether Commodore Paulding is to be censured or applauded 
for his action. I shall express no sympathy with the course 
pursued by the President. I have no intention to discuss his 
position in relation to this matter, neither is it my purpose to en- 
ter the lists with the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. MaynardJ, 
who eulogized the heroism of Mr. Walker — a man who, claim- 
ing to be the President of Nicaragua, and to represent in his own 
person the sovereignty of that Stale, surrendered without a pro- 
test, and without a blow, to a power upon his own soil, which 
he claimed to be an invading force. Whether this be heroism I 
shall not now inquire. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 273 

"I thrust aside, for the present, all questions of legal techni- 
cality in this matter; all the mysteries of the construction of tlie 
neutrality laws; all these questions which have engrossed the 
attention of the House during the last three da3's, and concern- 
ing which everybody has been speaking, and nobody caring, and 
I come to that great, paramount, transcendent question about 
which everybody is caring and nobody is speaking : ' How shall 
we Americanize Central America?' 

'• It may be a matter of surprise that I pass over two or three 
questions which, in their natural order, seem to be antecedent to 
this one. And these questions are: First, Do we icish to Ameri- 
canize Central America? Secondly, Can we Americanize Central 
America? Thirdly, Shall we Americanize Central America? 

" Now, Mr. Chairman, I say that whoever has studied the his- 
tory of this country, and whoever knows the character of this 
people, and whoever can infer their destiny from their character 
and their history, knows that these three preliminary questions 
are already answered by the American people — that we do icisJi 
to Americanize Central America; that we can Americanize Cen- 
tral America; and that we sliall Americanize Central America. 

"And now, Mr, Chairman, in relation to the manner and agen- 
cy. Hoio can we Americanize Central America? Shall we do it 
legally and fairly, or illegally and unfairly? Shall we do it by 
conferring a benefit on the people of Central America, or shall 
we do it by conquest, by robbery, and violence? Shall we do it 
without abandoning national laws, and without violating our 
treaty stipulations? Shall we do it in accordance with the law 
of nations and the laws of the United States, or shall we do it by 
force, blood, and fire? 

"Now, Mr. Chairman, my position is this: that we will do it 
legally; that we will do it in accordance with the highest laws, 
human and divine. 

" Then, sir, by what agency may we thus Americanize Central 
America ? I reply to the question, by the power of organized 
emigration. That is abundantly able to give us Central America 
as soon as we want it. We could have Americanized Central 
America half a dozen times by this power within the last three 
years, if there had been no danger or apprehension of meddle- 
some or vexatious executive interference. But if we are to use 
this mighty power of organized emigration, we want a different 
12* 



274 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

kind of neutrality laws from those which we now have; and, 
therefore, I am desirous that this committee shall recommend 
something which shall not subject us to the misconstruction of 
the President of the United States, or to his construction at all. 
I want these neutrality laws so plain that every man may know 
whether he is in the right or in the wrong, whether he is violat- 
ing those laws or is not violating them. For, Mr. Chairman, 
with our new-fashioned kind of emigration, with our organized 
emigration, which goes in colonies, and therefore must, of neces- 
sity, to some extent resemble a military organization, there is 
great danger that a President with a dim intellect may make a 
mistake, and subject to harassing and vexatious delaj^s, and 
sometimes to loss and injury, a peaceful, quiet colony going out 
to settle in a neighboring State. 

"Mr. Chairman, I can illustrate this position. You, sir, re- 
member that in the year 1856, when it was had travelling across 
the State of Missouri, on the way to Kansas, our colonies went 
through the State of Iowa, and through the Territory of Ne- 
braska. These were peaceful, quiet colonies going to settle in 
the Territory of Kansas by that long and wearisome journey, 
because it was had travelling through the State of Missouri. You 
remember that one of these colonies of organized emigrants, 
which went from Maine and Massachusetts, and from various 
other Northern States, was arrested just as it was passing over 
the southern boundary of the Territory of Nebraska, on its way 
to its future home in Kansas. It was a peaceful, quiet colony, 
going out with its emigrant wagons, 'all in a row,' and, there- 
fore, looking something like a military organization; going out 
with their women and their children, with subsoil-ploughs with 
colters a yard long [laughter], with pickaxes, with crow-bars, 
with shovels, and with garden-seeds. This beautiful colony was 
arrested by the oflQcials of the present Executive's predecessor. 
It was by some mistake, no doubt. Perhaps he took the turnip- 
seed for powder; and I doubt whether the case would have been 
better if the President had been there himself. This colony was 
arrested within our own dominion. It was not an emigration to 
a foreign country, and there was no danger of interference with 
the neutrality laws. These quiet, peaceful colonists, because 
their wagons went in a row for mutual defence through the wild, 
uncultivated Territory of Nebraska, where there were Indians, 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 275 

they were arrested as a military organization. We do not want, 
hereafter, either within the limits of the United States or without 
them, any such meddlesome and vexatious interference by the 
executive power of this Government. Therefore, I say, let us 
have some neutrality laws that can be understood. If there had 
been no apprehensions in the North about the neutrality laws, if 
we had not expected that whatever emigration we might have 
fitted out for Central America would have been arrested within 
the marine league of the harbor of Boston, why, we would have 
colonized Central America years ago, and had it ready for ad- 
mission into the Union before this time. We want a modifica- 
tion or an elucidation of the neutrality laws, and I trust that it 
will be the duty of the committee so to report. 

"Before I proceed to consider the power and benefits of this 
system of organized emigration, and the reason why it ought 
not to be rejected by this House, I will proceed, as briefly as I 
can, to show the interests which the Northern portion of this 
country has in Americanizing Central America, as contrasted 
with the interests which the Southern portion has in doing the 
same thing. I come, then, to speak of the immense interests 
which the Northern States have in this proposed enterprise. I 
am astonished that so far in this debate the advocates for Amer- 
icanizing Central America seem to be mostly from those States 
which border on the Gulf of Mexico. As yet, I have heard no 
man from the Northern States advocating the same thing. Let 
us look at the interests of the Northern States in this question, 
and then at those of the Southern States. 

" These Northern States are, as the States of Northern Eu- 
rope were designated by Tacitus, officina gentium, ' the manu- 
factory of nations.' We can make one State a year. In the 
last three years we have colonized almost wholly the Territory 
of Kansas. We have furnished settlers to Minnesota and Ne- 
braska, and the Lord knows where, but we have not exhausted 
one-half of our natural increase. We have received accessions 
to our numbers in that time, from foreign countries of more 
than one million of souls, and now we have no relief; we are 
worse off to-day than we were when we began to colonize 
Kansas. We must have an outlet somewhere for our surplus 
population. [Laughter.] 

" Sir, I have a resolution in ray pocket, which I have been 



376 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

carrying about for days, waiting patiently for an opportunity to 
present it in this House, instrucling tke Committee on Terri- 
tories to report a bill organizing and opening for settlement the 
Indian Territory. Mr. Chairman, I came to this conclusion 
with reluctance, that we must have the Indian Territory. But 
necessity knows no law. We must go somewhere. Something 
must be opened to the descendants of the Pilgrims. [Laughter.] 
Why, sir, just look at it. We are crammed in between the At- 
lantic and Pacific oceans. The bounding billows of our emi- 
gration are dashing fiercely against both sides of the Rocky 
Mountains. Obstructed now by these barriers, this westward- 
moving tide begins to set back. Will it flow towards Canada? 
Not at all. It has already begun to flow over the ' Old Do- 
minion' [laughter], and into other States. Missouri is almost 
inundated with it. We cannot check this tide of flowing emi- 
gration. You might as well try to shut out from this continent, 
by curtains, the light of the aurora borealis. No such thing can 
be accomplished. This progress must be onward, and we must 
have territory. We must have territory; and I think it most 
opportune that the proposition seems to be before the country 
to Americanize Central America. A better time could not be; 
for, in addition to the population which we now have, which is 
immense in the Northern States, as I shall show you in proceed- 
ing, this financial pressure in the East, and in the different na- 
tions of Europe, will send to our shores in the year 1858 not less 
than half a million of men. In addition to that, we have two 
hundred and fifty thousand of our own population who will 
change localities in that time. Then, sir, there are seven hun- 
dred and fifty thousand men to be prepared for, somewhere, in 
the year 1858 — men enough, sir, to make eight States, if we only 
had Territories in which to put them, and if we only use them 
economically [laughter], as we are sure to do by this system of 
organized emigration. 

"Now, could anything be more opportune, at this time, than 
to have this project submitted to us, of opening Central America 
to settlement? I assure you, if the committee will report any 
bill which will enable the people of the North, without larceny 
of any kind, without tyranny of any kind, to settle that country, 
I will postpone my resolution for the opening of the Indian Ter- 
ritory, at least until the next session of Congress. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 277 

" But it is not only for the purpose of furnishing an outlet for 
our immense population in the North that I now advocate the 
Americanizing of Central America. The interests of commerce, 
as well as this great argument of necessity, are on our side. Who 
has the trade be3'-ond Central America? We have whale-fisheries 
in the Northern Ocean, which build up great cities upon the east- 
ern shore of Massachusetts. We have trade willi Oregon and 
California, with the Sandwich Islands, and the western coast of 
South America. AVe are opening a trade, destined to be an im- 
mense trade, with the empires of China and Japan, and we must 
of necessity have in Central America certain factors and certain 
commercial agencies, who, in a very few years, with their families 
and relatives and dependants, will make a dense population. 
I say, then, that for the interests of commerce we want Central 
America Americanized. This commercial interest is, unfortu- 
nately, a sectional interest in these States. It is, emphatically, a 
Northern interest; and therefore, as a Northern man, I advocate 
especially that Central America should be Americanized. 

"Now, sir, I said I was astonished that gentlemen who come 
from States bordering upon the Gulf had advocated this proj- 
ect, and not the representatives who come from Northern 
States. Let us see the reason why the North should be more 
zealous than the South in this movement. In the State of Mas- 
sachusetts we have one hundred and twenty-seven people to a 
square mile, by the census of 1850. In the State of Rhode Isl- 
and we have one hundred and twelve to the square mile, by the 
same census. In the State of Connecticut we have seventy- 
nine. In the State of New York we have sixty-five. So, j^ou 
see, it was not fiction, it was not poetry, not a stretch of the im- 
agination, when I told you that the descendants of the Pilgrims 
were in a tight place. [Laughter.] 

"But how is it with the Stales which border upon the Gulf? 
Look at it and see. They have, some of them, eighty-nine hun- 
dredths of a man to the square mile. [Laughter.] In another 
one we have one and the forty -eight hundredth part of a man to 
the square mile ; and, taking them all together, we have just 
about three men to the square mile in all those States which 
border upon the Gulf of Mexico. 

"Now, sir, it would be folly for me to argue, and there is no 
kind of reason for supposing, that these States expect to do 



278 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

anything about colonizing Central America. Tliey cannot af- 
ford to lose a man. They had better give away two thousand 
dollars than to lose a single honest, industrious citizen. They 
cannot afford it. I have left out of this calculation, to be sure, 
the enumeration of the slaves in those States, for the gentleman 
from Tennessee [Mr. Maynard] informed us that the question of 
slavery did not come into this argument properly, and I agree 
with him there. I think he may agree with me, that by no possi- 
bility can slavery ever be established in Central America. That 
is my belief. Just fix your neutrality laws, and we will fill up 
Central America before 1860 sufficiently to be comfortable." 

Mr. Maynard. " With the permission of the gentleman, I de- 
sire to ask him whether he will pledge himself for his constitu- 
ents, and for all those he represents, that when they get down 
there they will not make slaves of the people they find there?" 

Mr. Thayer. " Certainly I will do it ; and I will say more on 
that subject hereafter. I will say to the gentlemen upon the 
other side who have advocated this right of emigration, and 
have no personal interest in this matter, that they can have no 
pecuniary interest in it, for they have no men to spare for this 
enterprise. And especially do I honor the gentleman from 
Mississippi [Mr. Quitman], who professed to be moved by argu- 
ments of philanthropy in relation to this question, and w^ho 
maintained that the people of Central America were oppressed, 
that they needed our assistance, and that it was conferring a 
benefit upon them to send out colonies among them to aid them 
to get rid of their oppressors. This is more than patriotism. It 
approaches universal brotherhood. I am glad that that gentle- 
man is defending the rights of emigration. No man prizes those 
rights more highly than I do, I think that I understand their 
power and their value, and I am glad to welcome among the list 
of political regenerators the gentleman from Mississippi with 
such large, wide, and noble views upon this question. 1 do not 
here indorse his wdiole speech. I did not hear the whole of it. 
I do not know what he said about Mr. Walker, whether he de- 
fends him or whether he does not. For myself, I do not say 
that I defend him, or that I do not, at this time. I wait for the 
report of our committee, to know what are the facts in this case, 
and whether he is fit to be defended or not. 

"Now, sir, I am rejoiced that I have found aid and comfort 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 279 

in a great political missionary movement from a quarter where 
I least expected it. This argument of philanthropy is sufficient- 
ly potent with the South ; while I will not deny that it is always 
more or less potent with the North, perhaps not so potent with 
the North as with the South — very likely we are more material 
and less spiritual — but still, I say, it has some power at the North. 
We do not live so near the sun as do those gentlemen who bor- 
der on the Gulf; but we live near enough to the sun to have 
some warmth in our hearts, and the appeals of philanthropy to 
us are not made in vain. 

"But, in addition to that, just look at it, sir ! In addition to 
that great argument of philanthropy, we have not only the argu- 
ment of necessity, but the argument of making money; and when 
you take those three arguments, and combine them, you make a 
great motive power, which is sufficient, in ordinary cases, to move 
Northern men, though they are not very mobile nor very fickle. 

" So much, Mr. Chairman, for the comparison of interests be- 
tween the Northern and Southern people of these United States 
in relation to the Americanizing of Central America. 

"I come now to discuss, briefly, the power and benefits of this 
new mode of emigration. And, sir, what is its power? I tell 
you its power is greater than that which is wielded by any po- 
tentate or emperor upon the face of God's footstool. If we can 
form a company, or a number of companies, which can control 
the emigration of this country — the foreign emigration and native 
emigration — I tell you, sir, that that company, or those compa- 
nies, will have more power than any potentate or emperor upon 
the face of the earth; and that company, or those companies, 
may laugh at politicians; they may laugh, sir, at the President 
and his Cabinet; at the Supreme Court, and at Congress; for all 
these powers of the Government, great and mighty as they are, 
can do nothing, in accordance with the Constitution of this land, 
which can in any way interfere with our progress, or prevent 
our making cities and States and nations wherever and when- 
ever we please. Then, sir, there can be no doubt about the pow- 
er of this agency, which, I tell you, is the right one for us to 
make use of in getting Central America if we want it, or in 
Americanizing Central America, as we are sure to do. 

" Now, Mr. Chairman, I have said nothing about annexing 
Central America to the United States. For myself, I care noth- 



280 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

ing about it, and I do not know whether the people of this coun- 
try are ready for that proposition yet. I think, however, they 
would rather annex a thousand square leagues of territory than 
to lose a single square foot. To be sure, sir, we have a few men 
in the North who honestly hate this Union. I will not criticise 
their views. I will not condemn them for their views. They 
have a right to cherish just what views they please in relation to 
this question. Sir, there are still a larger number of sour and 
disappointed politicians, who, though they do not profess hatred 
to this Union, do, to a certain extent, profess indifference as to 
its continuance. But the great and overwhelming majority of 
the people of the North, sir, as a unit, are determined that no 
force, internal or external, shall ever wrest from the jurisdiction 
of the United States a single square foot of our territory, unless 
it first be baptized in blood and fire. That is the sentiment of 
the great majority of the people of the North — that no portion 
of the territory of this Government shall ever be released from 
our possession. We understand that this Union is a partnership 
for life, and that the bonds that hold us together cannot by any 
fatuity be sundered until this great Government is first extin- 
guished and its power annihilated. That, sir, is our sentiment 
about the Union, and such may be the present sentiment about 
annexation. But I have no doubt what the future sentiment of 
the country will be about annexation. I have no doubt we will 
have Central America in this Government, and all between this 
and Central America also. 

" Well, sir, we have now come to the grand missionary age of 
the world, in which we do not send our preachers alone, per- 
plexing people who are in ignorance and barbarism with ab- 
stract theological dogmas; but with the preachers we send the 
church, we send the school, we send the mechanic and the farm- 
er; we send all that makes up great and flourishing communi- 
ties; we send the powers that build cities; we send steam-en- 
gines, sir, which are the greatest apostles of liberty that this 
country has ever seen. That is the modern kind of missionary 
emigration, and it has wonderful power on this continent, and 
is destined to have on the world, too, for it is just as good against 
one kind of evil as another; and it can just as well be exerted 
against idol worship in Hindostan and China as against op- 
pression and despotism in Central America. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 281 

"But we take the countries that are nearest first; and now 
we propose to use this mighty power in originating a nation in 
quick time for Central America. We read of a time when 'a 
nation shall be born in a day.' I think it may be done in some 
such way as this. By this method of emigration the pioneer 
does not go into the wilderness 

" * Alone, unfriended, melancholy, slow, 

Dragging at each remove a length'ning chain,' 

stealing away from the institutions of religion and education, 
himself and family; but Christianity herself goes hand in hand 
with the pioneer; and not Christianity alone, but the offspring 
of Christianity, an awakened intelligence, and all the inventions 
of which she is the mother; creating all the differences between 
an advanced and enlightened community and one in degrada- 
tion and ignorance. Sir, in years gone by our emigration has 
ever tended towards barbarism; but now, by this method, it is 
tending to a higher civilization than we have ever witnessed. 
Why, sir, by this plan a new community starts on as high a 
plane as the old one had ever arrived at; and leaving behind the 
dead and decayed branches which encumbered the old, with the 
vigorous energies of youth it presses on and ascends. Sir, such 
a State will be the State of Kansas, eclipsing in its progress all 
the other States of this nation, because it was colonized in this 
way. The people, in this way, have not to serve half a century 
of probation in semi-barbarism. They begin with schools and 
churches, and you will see what the effect is upon communities 
that are so established. 

"But I will speak now of that which constitutes the peculiar 
strength of emigration of this kind ; and that is the profit of the 
thing. I have shown you how efficient it is, and 1 will now show 
you how the method works, to some extent. It is profitable for 
every one connected with it; it is profitable to the people where 
the colonies go; it is profitable to the people of the colonies; and 
it is profitable to the company, which is the guiding star and the 
protecting power of the colonies. It does good everywhere. It 
does evil nowhere. 

" Sir, you cannot resist a power like this. A good man often 
feels regret when he knows that by promoting a good cause he 
is at the same time sacrificing his own means of doing good, and 



282 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

is becoming weaker and weaker eveiy day. It is a great draw- 
back upon beneficent enterprises, even upon philantliropic and 
Christian enterprises, that the men wlio sustain them are lessen- 
ing their own means of doing good by it. Sir, it is a great mis- 
take to suppose that a good cause can only be sustained by the 
life-blood of its friends. But when a man can do a magnani- 
mous act, when he can do a decidedly good thing, and at the 
same time make money by it, all his faculties are in harmony. 
[Laughter.] You do not need any great argument to induce 
men to take such a position, if you can only induce them to be- 
lieve that such is the effect. AVell, sir, such is the effect; and 
now let us apply it to the people of Central America. What 
reason will they have to complain, if we send among them our 
colonies, organized in this way, with their subsoil-ploughs, their 
crow - bars, their hoes, their shovels, and their garden - seeds ? 
What reason will they have to complain ? Why, the fact is 
that unless our civilization is superior to theirs, the effort would, 
in the beginning, be a failure; it never can make one inch of 
progress. Then, sir, if we succeed at all, we succeed in plant- 
ing a civilization there which is superior to theirs; we plant that 
or none. It is impossible for an inferior civilization to supplant 
a superior civilization except by violence, and it is almost im- 
possible to do it in that way. 

"Well, sir, if we give them a better civilization, the tendency 
of that better civilization is to increase the value of real estate; 
for the value of property, the value of real estate, depends upon 
the character of the men who live upon the land, as well as upon 
the number of men who live upon it. Now, sir, we either make 
an absolute failure in this thing, and do not trouble them at all, 
or we give them a better civilization, and, in addition to that, we 
give them wealth. 

"Thus, sir, with bands of steel we bind the people of Central 
America to us and to our interests, by going among them in this 
way; and they cannot have reason to complain, nor will they 
complain. If we had approached them in this way two years 
ago, without this miserable, meddlesome method, induced and 
warranted, or supposed to be warranted, by the neutrality laws, 
we should have filled Central America to overflowing by this 
time, and should have had with us the blessings of every native 
citizen in that portion of country. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 283 

" Now, sir, if such is the way, if such is the power, if such is 
the effect of this method to the emigrants, and to the people 
among whom they settle, why should we not now adopt it in 
reference to Central America? And what is the method? Why, 
it is as plain and simple as it can be. It is jusc to form a mon- 
eyed corporation which shall have two hundred thousand dol- 
lars capital; which shall then obtain and spread information 
through the country by publications indicating what are the 
natural resources of Central America, and the inducements to 
emigrate thither; showing how it is situated in relation to com- 
merce, and how, of necessity, there must speedily be built upon 
that soil a flourishing commonwealth. Then you have to apply 
a portion of these means to buying land and to sending out 
steam-engines, and to building some hotels to accommodate the 
people who go there, and also some receiving-houses for the emi- 
grants. Establish there, and encourage there the establishment 
of the mechanic arts, and I tell you that every steam-engine you 
send there will be the seat of a flourishing town: every one will 
be an argument for people to go there; for they talk louder than 
individuals a thousand times, and they are more convincing a 
thousand times, especially to an ignorant and degraded people, 
than anything men can say, because the argument is addressed 
to the senses; it makes them feel comfortable; it gives them 
good clothes; it gives them money. These are the arguments to 
address to an ignorant and degraded people, and not cannon- 
balls, or rifle-balls, nor yet mere abstract dogmas about liberty or 
theology. Then let this company be organized so soon as you fix 
these neutrality laws, so that we can get off v/ithout these vexa- 
tious executive interferences. [Laughter.] Then we shall see 
how the thing will work in Central America. 

"But, sir, I expect when the people of the North shall hear 
that I am taking this view of the question, that the timid will be 
intensely terrified, and say that we are to have more slave States 
annexed to the Union. I have not the slightest apprehension of 
that result. It may be said that Yankees, when they get down 
into Central America, will, if the climate is suited for it, make 
use of slave labor. I have heard that argument before; and it 
has been asserted that the Yankees who go into slave States often- 
times turn slave-holders, and outdo the Southern men themselves. 
I have no doubt that they outdo them, if they do anything in 



284 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

that line at all. [Laughter.] The Yankee has never become a 
slave-holder unless he has been forced to it b}'' the social relations 
of the slave State where he lived; and the Yankee who has be- 
come a slave-holder has, every day of his life thereafter, felt in 
his very bones the bad economy of the system. It could not be 
otherwise. Talk about our Yankees who go to Central America 
becoming slave-holders! Why, sir, we can buy a negro power 
in a steam-engine for ten dollars [laughter], and we can clothe 
and feed that power for one year for five dollars [renewed laugh- 
ter]; and are we the men to give $1000 for an African slave, and 
$150 a year to feed and clothe him? 

"No, sir. Setting aside the arguments about sentimentality 
and about philanthropy on this question, setting aside all poetry 
and fiction, he comes right down to the practical question — is it 
profitable? The Yankee replies, 'Not at all.' Then there is no 
danger of men who go from Boston to Central America ever 
owning slaves, unless they are compelled to by their social rela- 
tions there. If a man goes from Boston into Louisiana, and no- 
body will speak to him unless he has a slave, nobody will invite 
him to a social entertainment unless he owns a negro; and if he 
cannot get a wife unless he has a negro, then, sir, very likely he 
may make up his mind to own a negro. [Laughter.] But I tell 
you that he will repent of it every day while he has him. He 
cannot whistle ' Yankee Doodle ' with the same relish as before. 
He cannot whittle in the same free and easy manner. He used 
to cut with the grain, with the knife-edge from him; now he 
cuts across the grain with the knife-edge towards him. The 
doleful fact that he owns a negro is a tax upon every pulsation 
of his heart. Poor man! There is no inducement for the Yan- 
kees to spread slavery in Central America, and there is no power 
in any other part of the country to do it. Therefore, most fear- 
lessly do I advocate the Americanizing of Central America. 
We must have some outlet for our overwhelming population. 
Necessity knows no law; and if we cannot have Central America 
we must have the Indian Territory; we must have something; 
we are not exhausted in our power of emigration; we are worse 
oflf than we were before the opening of Kansas. Not one-half of 
our natural increase has been exhausted in colonizing that Terri- 
tory, and furnishing people for Oregon and Washington. We 
might, as I told you, make eight States a year, if we only used 



CENTRAL AMERICA, 285 

our forces economically; and we will use them economically by 
establishing, not for the present time only, but for all coming 
time, this system of organized emigration. Just as fast as this 
has become understood in the country— just as far as it is known 
to the people — not a single man who has any sense will emigrate 
in any other way than by colonies. Just look at the difference 
between men going in a colony and going alone. Suppose a 
man goes to Central America, and settles there alone; what is 
his influence upon real estate by settling there alone? There is 
no appreciable difference from what it was before ; but if he goes 
there with five hundred men from the city of Boston to establish 
a town, by that very act he has made himself wealthy. I can 
point to numerous examples of the kind. Hence this making 
money by organized emigration is not going to be speedily relin- 
quished. Depend upon it that we have only begun to use it, and 
that we have not used it with the efficiency with which it will be 
used in a year to come. 

"Now, sir, for these reasons I hope that the committee to 
which this question shall be referred will so modify and eluci- 
date the neutrality laws that we shall not hereafter be subjected 
to this executive interference. And, in accordance with the 
views I have expressed, I now offer the following amendment: 

* ' ' And, also, that said committee report, so far as they may be 
able, the present social and political condition of the people of 
Nicaragua, and whether they invite colonies from the United 
States to settle among them ; and, also, whether the soil, climate, 
and other natural advantages of that country are such as to en- 
courage emigration thither from the Northern States of this con- 
federacy.' 

"Now, Mr. Chairman, I will state briefly my reasons for sub- 
mitting that amendment. The gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. 
Quitman] referred to the social and political condition of the 
people of Central America as a proper basis, I think he said, for 
our action. Therefore, with open arms, do we welcome that 
gentleman and his associates to our noble brotherhood of mis- 
sionary political regenerators. For myself, I am willing to take 
the gentleman's words about the necessity of something being 
done to aid these people; but, in grave matters of legislation like 
this, the committee having the subject in charge should first fully 
investigate in reference to the matter suggested by my amendment. 



286 THE KANSAS CRUSADE. 

" I do not intend any offensive sectionalism by using the word 
Northern ; that the committee should inquire whether the natu- 
ral advantages of soil and climate of Central America were such 
as to invite emigration thither from the Northern States. I so 
phrased the amendment because, as I have shown you, the 
Northern States are the only ones which cau furnish emigration 
that would be of any consequence to Central America. We 
would be glad to receive whatever help the States on the Gulf 
could give us, but it is impossible for them to give much help in 
this work. And because the Northern States have the power in 
this matter, and because the Southern States have not the power, 
I have used the words, that the committee shall inquire specially 
whether the climate and the soil are such as to encourage emi- 
gration to Central America from the Northern States. If, how- 
ever, there be objection to it, I will strike out the word ' North- 
ern,' and leave the inquiry to be general." 



i:ndex. 



Abolition, fanatics of New England, the, 156. 

Abolitionists, Garrison, editorial on, in the Glasgow Christian News, 

1852, 153 ; extreme views of the, 87-89. 
Abolitionists, prominent, liberality of the, 204, 205. 
Adams, John Quincy, extracts from the diary of, 148 ; remarks of, 80. 
Anthony, D. K, tireless energy of, in making Kansas free, 70. 
Antislavery vote, increase of the, in 1855 and 1856, 20, 250, 251. 
Atchison, Senator, strong language used by, 187. 

Beecher, Henry "Ward, at the meeting in the vestry of Plymouth 
Church, 205 ; he asks Mr. Thayer to speak on the Kansas ques- 
tion, 205. 

Benton, Thomas H., extract from his review of the Dred Scott de- 
cision, 9. 

" Black Power," the, 243. 

Bleeding Kansas' Days, 231, 232. 

Blunt, George W., a meeting at the house of, to raise money for the 
Emigrant Aid Company, 202. 

Boston Daily Advertiser, the, extract from an editorial of, 214-216. 

Boston Evening Traveller, extract from the, on the Garrisonian party, 
151 ; report of the N. E. A. A. S. Convention in Boston, 161, 162. 

Boston Herald, editorials in the, 233, 234. 

Boutwell, George S., extract from a speech of, on the non-extension 
of slavery, in Tremout Temple, Boston, December 16, 1861, 241. 

Bowles, Samuel, editorial of, in the Springfield lie2mblican,x\\\\vQmQ,x^ 
of, in relation to the Abolitionists, 98. 

Brown, G. W., establishes the Herald of Freedom, 107. 

Brown, John, a historical view of, 197 ; a pupil of the Garrisonites, 
195 ; peculiar views of, 192. 

Bryant, William Cullen, energy and eloquence of, in the movement of 
organized emigration, 171; rapid decline in Missouri bonds caused 
by editorials of, 20S. 

Bryant and Guy's *' History of the United States," extract from, 54. 



288 INDEX. 

Buslinell, Rev. Dr. Horace, extracts from a sermon preached in Hart- 
ford, in 1839, 84-86. 

Calhoun, John C, his efforts in the interests of slave property, 6, 

Cambridge Chronicle, editorial in the, 223, 225. 

Cass, Lewis, personal hostility of Martin Yan Buren to, 19. 

Chaiining, Wm. E., criticisms of, in relation to the course pursued by 
Wm. Lloyd Garrison, 86, 87 ; letter of, to Daniel Webster, 77, 78. 

Charity Plan, the, 59. 

Charles B. Lines Colony, formation of the, 55. 

Charleston Mercury, extracts from the, advocating the establishing of 
slavery in Kansas, 237, 240. 

Chase, Salmon P., extract from a speech of, in the United States Sen- 
ate, May 25, 1854, 13. 

Christian Examiner, the, extract from, on the notable migrations of 
history, 66-68. 

Christian Register, the, extracts from, 65, 183. 

Circular of invitation, a, for a meeting at the chapel of the University 
of New York, in relation to the settlement of Kansas, 209. 

Clean Sweep, a, 128. 

Clergy, Appeal of the, 130-133. 

Clergymen, letters of, 133-135. 

Crusade of Freedom, the, work of, 221. 

Curtis, George Ticknor, extract from his " Life of Webster," 145. 

Dana, Richard H., extract from a speech of, 149. 

De Boio's Revieio, appeal of, to the South in favor of establishing 
slavery in Kansas, 238, 239 ; extract from, approving of the plan 
and operations of the Emigrant Aid Company, 122. 

Devens, Gen. Charles, address of, before the Bunker Hill Monument 
Association, June 17, 1887, 228, 229. 

Disunionists of the North, the, 230 ; wonderful affection of the, for 
cranks and monomaniacs, 194. 

Douglas, Stephen A., his report to the Senate, March 12, 1856, ex- 
cusing the acts of the border ruffians, 236, 237. 

Editorials, patriotic, 153-160. 

Edwards, Isaac M., evidence of, before the Howard Congressional Com- 
mittee, 235. 

Eldridge, S. W., colonies put in charge of, 214. 

Eliot, Samuel, extract from his " History of the United States," 81, 82. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, extract from his " Miscellanies," 239 ; re- 
marks of, 184. 



INDEX. 289 

Emigrant Aid Company, charter for an, procured from the Legislature 
of Connecticut, 164; also one granted by the Massachusetts Legis- 
lature, 15 ; disparagement of the work of the, by Nicolay and Hay, 
in their Life of Lincoln, 226. 

Emigration, difficulties of, 63. 

Eminent helpers, a number of, 223. 

" Eternal Whine," the, 114. 

Evarts, William M., remarks of, at the house of George W. Blunt, 
203, 204. 

Free labor, the irresistible power of, 92. 

Free-soil party, the, origin of, 19; its dissolution advocated, 7; weak- 
ness of, 7. 
Futile Abolition effort, a quarter of a century of, 162. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, an " immcdiativist," 137; fierce hostility 
against, 78 ; the Alpha and Omega of the antislavery struggle, 95 ; 
undoing the work of Benjamin Lundy, 78, 79 ; vituperative fulmi- 
nations of, 79. 

Geary, Governor, goes to Kansas, 218. 

Giddings, Joshua R., extract from a speech of, in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, May 16, 1854, 11. 

Good Garrisonian, how to make a, 163. 

Greeley, Horace, anecdote of, 42, 43; conceding Kansas to slavery, 
181 ; editorial sanctum of, 37 ; extract from " The Great American 
Conflict," 160; extracts from editorials of, in the New York Trib- 
une, 14, 15, 48-51; his remarkable gift, 38; his weak point, 181; 
invaluable aid of, in the early part of the Kansas trouble, 182 ; on 
Wendell Phillips's "Holier than thou," 150. 

Green, Senator, remarks of, in the Senate, 236. 

Guthrie, Rev. John, letter of, to George Thompson, 152. 

Hale, Edward E., chosen a director in the New England Emigrant Aid 
Company, xii ; his admiration of Eli Thayer, x; his invaluable 
bool^ " Kansas and Nebraska," 178 ; his pamphlet, called "How to 
Conquer Texas before Texas Conquers Us," x ; proud of the part 
he took in the settlement of Texas, ix ; untiring energy of, in se- 
curing freedom to Kansas, 125. 

Hale, John P., advocates the disbanding of the Free-soil party and the 
fusing with the AVhigs, 7. 

Hamlin, Hannibal, address of, before the Veteran Club, February 18, 
1888, 8. 

Hidden, Rev. E. N., letter of, 135. 

13 



290 INDEX. 

Higginson, Rev. T, W., conference of, with James 11. Lane, 117; ex- 
tract from a sermon of, 101. 

Ilillard, George S., extract from a speech of, 5. 

Historic Truth, the statue of, 249. 

Hyatt, Thaddeus, election of, as president of the National Kansas Com- 
mittee, 217; courage and fidehty of, 217. 

*' Immediativist," Mr. Garrison an, 137. 
Iowa, our emigrants in, 214, 

Jackson, Rev. W. C, letter of, to Rev. Dr. Clark, 135. 
James, Rev. Horace, letter of, to Rev. Dr. Clark, 133, 134. 

Kansas, freedom of, secure, 211 ; frothy interlopers in, 201 ; the fight 

in, the forerunner of the Republican party, 170. 
Kansas Pioneer^ the, extract from, 64, G5. 

Kansas-Nebraska Bill, the, passage of, 98; signed by President Pierce, 98. 
King, President, of Columbia College, pi-esides at a meeting of the 

friends of "The Plan of Freedom" in the Astor House, May 31, 

1854, 51. 

Lane, James H., extreme views of, in regard to the course to be pur- 
sued in Kansas, 117. 

Lawrence, Amos A., episode pertaining to, 189; extract from the 
diary of, 116 ; his confidence in men abused, 190; letter of, to the 
Old Settlers' Meeting in Bismarck Grove, Lawrence, Kansas, Sep- 
tember, 1877, xvii; remarks of, before the Massachusetts Histor- 
ical Society, 191-193 ; styles himself a " Hunker Whig," 190. 

Lawrence, City of, founded by Charles H. Branscomb, 71. 

Liberator, the, established, 81; extracts from editorials iii, 104-106, 
108, 109, 127. 

Lincoln, Abraham, extract from speech of, at Cooper Institute, 193; 
folly to attribute secession to, 242. 

Lundy,Benj., effective antislavery work of, 78; establishes a paper called 
the Genius of Universal Emancipation, 75 ; liis "Appeal to^Philan- 
thropists," 75 ; his success in organizing antislavery societies, 75. 

Lynchburg Hepublican, the, extract from, 64. 

Maine, meetings in, 188. 

Man-stcalers, no union -with, 102. 

Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, charter of the, signed by the 

Governor, 27; committee appointed to report a plan of oiganiza- 

tion, 27; extract from the report, 27, 29. 



INDEX. 291 

May, Samuel, Jr., extract from a speech of, 115. 

Meeting in Faneuil Hall to protest against the repeal of ihe Mieaouri 

Compromise, February 23, 1854, 4. 
Meetings, Chapman Hall, 30. 
Midas, the modern, 60. 
Missouri Compromise, the, general alarm in anticipation of the repeal 

of, 23 ; protest against the passage of, by New England clergymen, 

123. 
Mobile Register^ the, extract from, 240. 
Morley, Rev. S. B., letter of, to Rev. Dr. Clark, 134. 

National Kansas Committee, the, organized, 217. 

Nebraska Bill, protest against the passage of, 124. 

New England Emigrant Aid Company, officers of, 53. 

New England, first legislative assembly of white men in, a law of the, 

in relation to slavery, 74. 
New England Home Journal, editorial in, 231, 232. 
New York Evening Post, extracts from editorials in, 207, 208, 232, 233. 
Ne^v York Herald, extract from the, 240. 
New York Kansas Aid Committee of Albany, New York, the energy 

and activity of, 172. 
New York Observer, extract from the, 128. 

New York Sun, editorial in the, 230 ; editorial comments of, 197. 
New York Tribune, extract from an editorial in, 226, 227; extracts 

from the, 150, 177. 

Olmsted, Frederic Law, his contribution of a howitzer ta the free- 
State men in Kansas, 210. 
Organized emigration, scheme of, 24. 

Parker, Theodore, extract from a speech of, in the Hall of the State- 
house, Boston, xiv, xv ; extracts from the speeches of, 9 ; letters 
of, to Eli Thayer, xv, xvi. 

Patriotic meetings in the Northern States protesting against the pas- 
sage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 3. 

Phillips, Wendell, extracts from speeches of, 116, 117, 144. 

Pillsbury, Parker, offers a resolution in the Worcester County South 
Division A. S. Society in relation to two speeches of Charles Sum- 
ner, 140, 141 ; the blasphemer, 155. 

Pinckney, C. C, extract from his address before the South Carolina 
Agricultural Society, at Charleston, 1829, 256, 257. 

Pioneers, letters of the, 169. 

Plan of Freedom, the name of, suggested by Horace Greeley, 47. 



292 INDEX. 

Plymouth Church, meeting in the vestry of, 205. 
Poe, Edgar A., quotation from, 219. 

Pomeroy, Samuel C, a member of the second colony, 72 ; subsequent- 
ly a member of the United States Senate, 72. 

Quantrell raid, the, 195. 
Quirk Walker case, the, 74. 

Race problem, the, 112. 

Kandolph, John, remarks on the floor of Congress in relation to sla- 
very, 260. 

Reeder, Governor, escape of, from Kansas, 212; requested to preside 
at the convention of delegates at Cleveland, 212. 

Reminiscences, Mr. Merrifield's, extract from, 175, 176. 

Ricltmond South, extract from the, 240. 

Robinson, Charles, and others, arrested for treason, 210; liberated, 
211; Mrs. Sara T. L., her great influence for the cause of freedom 
in Kansas, 35. 

Roosevelt, Theodore, extracts from his "Life of Benton," 83, 146, 
148. 

"Saw-mills and liberty," xii. 

Schouler's History, extracts from, 82, 93. 

Seward, William H., concedes Kansas and the other Territories to 
slavery, 16; extracts from speeches of, 12, 243. 

Slave power, the, in 1854, 1. 

Slave States, Northern civilization superior to that of the, 61 ; the 
prospective power of, 18. 

Slavery, degrading influence of, 31. 

Slavery extension, the question of, debated by Mr. Lincoln and Mr. 
Douglas, 244. 

Slavery, restriction of, simply a delusion, 2; the institution of, regard- 
ed as a calamity both North and South, 220. 

Smith, Gerrit, at the National Convention, Buffalo, 214; motion of, to 
appoint Eli Thayer a committee to take charge of the systematic 
organization of all the States friendly to Kansas, 215. 

South, the, resurrection of, 113. 

Spinner, Francis E., extract from a letter of, 229. 

Spooner, W. B., extract from a letter of, to one of the directors of the 
Emigrant Aid Company, xvii. 

Spring, Professor, extract from his '•' Kansas," 182, 183 ; extracts from 
his History, 32, 52. 

Standish, Miles, motto of, 222. 



INDEX. 293 

Stearns, C, extracts from letters of, 103, 104. 

Stevens, Thaddeus, remark of, in relation to John Brown, 194. 

Stringfellow, John H., evidence of, before the Howard Congressional 
Committee, 234, 235. - 

Sumner, Charles, extracts from speeches of, 10, 16, 118, 121 ; his opin- 
ion of Eli Thayer's efforts in behalf of Kansas, xviii. 

Systematic relief of Kansas, the, 214. 

Thayer, Eli, a talk with Dr. Eliphalet Nott, 1*78 ; a talk with Horace 
Greeley in relation to organized emigration, 37-42 ; address of, at the 
house of George W. Blunt, 203 ; address of, in the vestry of Plym- 
outh Church, 206 ; address of, in the Rev. Mr. Frothingham's church, 
209; extract from a letter of, to the Neio York Sun, 195, 197; ex- 
tract from a letter of, to the Boston Herald, 199-201 ; extract from 
a speech of, in the City Hall, Worcester, 25 ; extract from a speech 
of, in the House of Representatives, February 24, 1859, 244-248 ; first 
became personally acquainted with Horace Greeley, 36 ; his interview 
with George W. Blunt and Simeon Draper, 202 ; letters of, to William 
Barnes, 173-175, 213 ; makes the acquaintance of Governor Morrill, 
186; opposition to, inYermont, 91; remarks before the nominating 
convention at Worcester, 219; reward offered for, by the border 
ruffians of Missouri, 184, 185; speech of, on Central America, 
delivered January 7, 1858, 272; speech of, on the "Suicide of 
Slavery," delivered in the House of Representatives, March 25, 
1858, 253. 

Townsend, George Alfred, letter of, in relation to Garrison and Lundy, 
78. 

" Union Humane Society," the, 75. 

United States, Constitution of the, burned by William Lloyd Garrison 

at South Framinghara, Massachusetts, 138. 
Upham, Professor Thomas C, letter of, to T. P. Blanchard, 134. 

Van Buren, Martin, Free-soil party created by, in 1848, 7; his hostil- 
ity to Lewis Cass, 19. 

Wade, Benjamin F., extract from a speech of, in the United States 
Senate, May 25, 1854, 12. 

Walker, Rev. Charles, letter of, to the Committee of the New England 
Emigrant Aid Company, 134. 

Walker, William, "filibuster," eulogy of, by Mr. Maynard, 272; sur- 
render of, without a protest, 272. 

Waters, Asa H., letter of, 142, 143. 



294 LVDEX. 

Weed, Tiiurlow, editorial of, in the AVoaiiy Evening Journal, 165 ; ex- 
tracts from his "Memoirs," 149. 

Whittier, John G., his "Emigrants' Song" quoted, 69. 

AVilHams, J. M. S., a deserved compHment paid to, 225. 

Wilson, Henry, extract from his History, 72, 73 ; remark of, in relation 
to John Brown, 194. 

Winthrop, Robert C, extract from a speech of, 5. 

Worcester Spy, editorial of, in answer to Nicolay and Hay, 227, 228. 

Young Men of Vermont, Rev. Mr. Hale's advice to the, 126, 127. 



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8vo, Extra Cloth, Bevelled, Gilt Edges, $2 50. 

LEA'S HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION. History of the In- 
quisition of the Middle Aget". By Henry Charles Lea. Three 
Volumes. 8vo, Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, $3 00 per vol. 

FLAM:MARI0N'S atmosphere. Translated from the French 
of Camille Flammarion. With 10 Chromo-Lithographs and 
8G Wood-cuts. 8vo, Cloth, $G 00 ; Half Calf, $& 25. 



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